Why can’t Pietermaritzburg keep its sports teams? For a city that prides itself on its sporting heritage, Pietermaritzburg has become alarmingly good at losing the very teams that give that heritage life. Midlands Wanderers’ decision to leave the city for Durban feels like the final nail in a coffin that has been closing for years.
It is also the second proudly Pietermaritzburg football club playing in a national division to pack up and go, not because of poor performance, but because of a breakdown in its relationship with the municipality. This hurts all the more because Wanderers represented renewed hope. Instead, history has repeated itself.
Maritzburg United’s exit, following the City’s R27million agreement with Royal AM (later ruled illegal) and the souring of relationships around the use of Harry Gwala Stadium, should have been a lesson. Instead, United rebranded to Durban City FC and is now back in the Premier Soccer League, while Pietermaritzburg is left empty-handed. What a loss.
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Midlands Wanderers were not asking for millions, only a reasonable, workable agreement. As Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Business CEO Melanie Veness said, more should have been done to accommodate a home team that wanted to stay. This begs the question of whether the City understands the value of sport beyond balance sheets and contracts.
Local football brings more than goals and points. It fuels livelihoods, from vendors and hospitality workers to transport operators and informal traders. It creates foot traffic, pride, identity and economic spin-offs that no short-term deal can replace. Instead of nurturing talent and investing in its clubs, Msunduzi appears to be digging itself a deeper sporting grave.
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