One of them did not exist four years ago. The other has been climbing since 2012.
The Kruger United Milford Premiership story is the one nobody is going to write properly, because there is no traffic in it yet and both clubs are expected to go straight back down. Which is precisely why it is worth an hour of your time. In three weeks one of these squads is going to take a point off somebody’s title challenge, and you will want to have known who they were before it happened.
Here is who they are, where they came from, and what they are actually working with as the Betway Premiership returns.
Kruger United: three years, three promotions
Where they came from
Kruger United were formed in 2023 when businessmen Bongani Wati and Basil Khoza bought Caroline FC’s SAFA Second Division status. That is the standard route into South African football and usually the beginning of a long, slow, expensive climb.
It was not slow.
| Season | Achievement |
|---|---|
| 2023/24 | Won the Mpumalanga stream of the SAFA Second Division, lost the play-off final 2-0 to Highbury, promoted to the National First Division anyway |
| 2024/25 | Fifth in the National First Division |
| 2025/26 | Champions of the Motsepe Foundation Championship, clinched with two matches to spare |
Three seasons. Two promotions. From the third tier to the Betway Premiership.
Where they are
Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, playing at Kanyamazane Stadium. They are called the Village Boys and they mean it as a statement rather than a joke.
This is worth sitting with for a second. Bushbuckridge is not a football market in the way the PSL usually understands the term. There is no established supporter infrastructure, no decades of local rivalry, no built-in television audience. What there is, is a region that has never had a top-flight club and now does.
What nearly went wrong
The climb was not clean. Through the middle of 2025 the club was reported to be paying players late, and the salary problems ran on for months. A club in the second tier with unpaid players usually finishes fourteenth and gets forgotten.
Instead Abram Mongoya was appointed in October 2025, and Kruger won the league.
Mongoya has been confirmed to stay for the Premiership season, which matters more than it sounds. Newly promoted clubs in South Africa have a habit of replacing the coach who got them there with someone who has a top-flight CV, and then discovering that the CV was not the thing that was working. Kruger have kept the man who did it.
What they have signed
At least fourteen new players, including goalkeeper Fiacre Ntwari on loan from Kaizer Chiefs, along with Kwanda Mngonyama, Sanele Tshabalala, Katlego Mohammed, Sidney Fakude, Thendo Mukumela, Shane Saralina, Sikhosonke Langa, Tatenda Tavengwa, Phathutshedzo Musekwa, Mlungisi Zwane, Thabang Sibanyoni, Tumelo Mmakgolane and Lwanda Mbanjwa.
The strategy is legible: blend the promoted squad with players who have Premiership minutes in their legs. It is the right approach and it is also the approach that produces a dressing room of strangers in August.
The opener
Kaizer Chiefs. At home. Saturday 1 August, 20:15, under lights, in prime time.
That is either the cruellest possible start or the greatest night in the club’s short history, and it will probably be both.
Milford: fourteen years of climbing
Where they came from
Milford Football Club were founded in 2012 in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, and have come up the whole way: SAB League, then the ABC Motsepe League, then the Motsepe Foundation Championship, and now the top flight.
Fourteen years, every rung.
How they got up
The hard way. Milford finished third in the Championship on 54 points from 30 matches, with sixteen wins, six draws and eight defeats and a goal difference of plus sixteen. Third place does not get you promoted. It gets you into a three-team mini-league against the fifteenth-placed Premiership club and the other Championship contender.
That mini-league ran from late May into June. Milford beat Cape Town City in the opener at Athlone Stadium, and then finished the job at Seshego Stadium in Polokwane with a 1-1 draw against Magesi. Chirambadare put Magesi ahead on 14 minutes. Menzi Chili equalised on 59. The draw was enough to top the table.
Magesi went down. Milford went up, and became the first National First Division club to be promoted through the play-offs in the post-Covid era.
Who they are
Dr Xanti Pupuma is head coach and is staying, despite reports during the off-season that he was considering resigning after achieving promotion. Menzi Chili is the player the club is built around, having scored the goal that got them here. Mjabulise Mkhize and Cheswyn Philander are in the squad. Defender Admiro Chabangu has come in for the new season.
They also reached a Nedbank Cup semi-final last season, which tells you the promotion was not a fluke of the play-off format.
The context nobody mentions
Milford’s promotion makes KwaZulu-Natal the province with the most Premiership clubs in the country. Five: AmaZulu, Golden Arrows, Richards Bay, Durban City and now Milford.
Two of those five are in Richards Bay. A city of a few hundred thousand people now has two top-flight football clubs, which is a genuinely strange and interesting situation and one that will resolve itself one way or another over the next two seasons.
The opener
Orlando Pirates. Away. At Orlando Stadium. Against the champions.
Pupuma called it a brutal introduction, which is about right.
Kruger United Milford Premiership survival: what we actually think happens
Opinion. Both of these clubs are expected to be relegation candidates and both of those expectations are reasonable. But they are not the same kind of club and they do not face the same kind of season.
Kruger have the better squad and the harder market. Fourteen or fifteen signings, a coach with momentum, and money behind them from an ownership group that has now funded three promotions in three years. What they do not have is a supporter base or a stadium culture, and in this league that costs you points at home, where survival is decided.
Milford have the better foundation and the thinner squad. Fourteen years of organic growth, a real local identity, a coach who knows the players, a Nedbank Cup semi-final in the bank. What they do not have is depth, and thirty matches against this standard of opposition finds depth out by February.
Our predicted table has Kruger thirteenth and Milford sixteenth. We would love to be wrong about the second one.
And here is the thing worth saying plainly. Everybody covers the Soweto giants because everybody searches for the Soweto giants. Nobody is going to spend a season following what happens in Bushbuckridge and Richards Bay, which means the story of whether a brand new club and a fourteen-year-old club can survive in South African football’s top flight is going to go largely untold.
We are going to tell it. There will be a follow-up at the end of August, and another one after that.
Frequently asked questions
Who was promoted to the Betway Premiership for 2026/27?
Kruger United, who won the Motsepe Foundation Championship, and Milford FC, who came third and won the promotion and relegation play-off mini-league. Both are in the top flight for the first time in their history.
Where are Kruger United based?
Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga, playing at Kanyamazane Stadium. They are nicknamed the Village Boys and were formed in 2023 after buying Caroline FC’s SAFA Second Division status.
Who is Kruger United’s coach?
Abram Mongoya, appointed in October 2025, who won the club the Championship title and has been retained for their debut Premiership season.
Where is Milford FC from?
Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal. The club was founded in 2012 and climbed from the SAB League through the ABC Motsepe League and the Championship. Their promotion makes KwaZulu-Natal the province with the most Premiership clubs, with five.
How did Milford get promoted to the Premiership?
Through the promotion and relegation play-offs. They finished third in the Championship, then topped a three-team mini-league, sealing it with a 1-1 draw against Magesi at Seshego Stadium on 13 June 2026. Menzi Chili scored the equaliser. They are the first National First Division side promoted via the play-offs in the post-Covid era.