When Joe Express travelled to Giyani to honour their ABC Motsepe League match against Bilika All Stars at the Giyani Stadium last Saturday, little did they know that they were going to fight a political war.

It emerged during the game that Bilika All Stars were holding a political grudge against the Vhembe-based side.

At some stage, Joe Express were leading 2-0 but things turned against them as the game progressed and the final score was 7-5 for Bilika All Stars. Bilika All Stars were leading 4-3 when the teams adjourned for half time. They scored the fifth in the opening minutes of the last half. While celebrating their fifth goal, some of the players of Bilika were heard shouting the words “mi nga hi alela kuri hi kuma masipala wa hina, kambe hi ti points mi nge swikoti nwina Vhavenda”.

That loosely translates to “you can deny us the right to have our own municipality, but with the league points you can’t, you Vendas”. This was a direct political provocation to Joe Express as they are based in Vhembe District, which is dominated by Venda-speaking people.

Judging from the utterances, it was clear that the Bilika players felt the Venda-speaking people were denying the residents of Malamulele the right to have a municipality of their own outside Thulamela Municipality. That did not, however, disturb the flow of the game and everything went well until the final whistle was blown.

In the other matches, Great North FC beat A1 Terrors 2-0 at the Seshego Stadium, Giyani Hotspurs lost 0-2 to Lephalale Young Killers and Magezi FC narrowly beat The Dolphins 1-0 at the TT Cholo Stadium. Magezi are in the second position, following the victory.

Bellevue Winners Park fought hard to earn three important points against Dynamos when they beat them 2-0 at the Giyani Stadium. Mosesetjane All Stars beat Polokwane United 3-1 at the Ephraim Mohale Stadium in Modimolle. The match between Mighty FC and Blue Rocks was declared a walkover for Mighty, as Blue Rocks failed to honor the fixture.