Buying your way to the top

Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila’s (TTM) entrance into the DSTV Premiership after buying the status of BidVest Wits and relocating the club to Limpopo was greeted with shock and dismay as it ended 99 years of history at the country’s oldest club.

But buying franchises to move up the South African football pyramid is what TTM have been doing since their formation in the village of Tshakhuma in Limpopo in 2015.

To get into structured football, TTM first bought the SAB League (fourth tier) status of Peace Lovers, who had just been promoted from the amateur ranks but weren’t financially healthy enough to sustain themselves.

After just a season in the SAB League, TTM then purchased crisis-laden Zero Fake FC from Giyani for their ABC Motsepe League status.

In the ABC Motsepe League, they lasted just a season before again buying the GladAfrica Championship franchise of Milano United in mid-2017 after the Cape Town club put their status in the shopping window, citing viability concerns.

Then, two years into their stay in the second-tier, club boss Masala Lawrence Mulaudzi sent tremors across the domestic football landscape when he announced