Orlando Pirates have signed three players and moved on three more, and the headline number is 42 — the number of South African Premiership appearances Neo Rapoo already has at 20 years old.
The left-back arrives from Siwelele having played 27 of their 30 league games last season, just a year after featuring for SuperSport United before their PSL status was absorbed by the same club. Add an African U20 Championship winners' medal and you have a player who has been tested at multiple levels without much fuss. For a Pirates side defending their South African title, that kind of readiness matters.
The small print on Baliti
The second Siwelele signing is trickier. Aphiwe Baliti, 24, can play both full-back positions — which makes him genuinely useful in a squad context — but he's heading straight back to Siwelele on a season-long loan. Pirates own him. They just won't use him yet.
That's not necessarily bad recruitment, but it does mean the practical defensive reinforcement this window is really just Rapoo. Baliti is a future option, not a 2026/27 solution.
Matome Mmolai completes the trio, arriving from Leicesterford City in the Motsepe Foundation Championship. The 23-year-old central midfielder is the least proven of the three, but he fits the pattern Pirates have leaned into: young, domestic, developmental.
Three out the door
On the way out, the picture is cleaner. Gomolemo Khoto and Siyabonga Ndlozi both move permanently to Sekhukhune United — Khoto after a loan at Orbit College last season, Ndlozi simply chasing minutes he couldn't find at Pirates. Tshepho Mashiloane, brought in from Baroka just a year ago as part of the same youth-first approach, returns to Sekhukhune on loan after losing his footing in the squad.
Three right-backs in the building — Mashiloane, Ndlozi, and at times Baliti — and now two of them are gone and one is loaned out. Whatever Pirates are planning at right-back in 2026/27, it doesn't involve any of this window's signings.
Rapoo is the one to watch. If he develops the way his age and experience curve suggest he might, Pirates will look smart. If he stalls, a squad built increasingly on youth potential rather than proven output has less margin than the defending champions can afford.
