Black Leopards Relegated: Namibian Duo's Bitter Experience

Relegation has a way of feeling both sudden and inevitable. For Black Leopards FC and their Namibian spine of Bethuel Muzeu and Loydt Kazapua, it is a familiar, bitter script.

The Limpopo club’s drop from the South African National First Division, the Motsepe Foundation Championship, was confirmed on Sunday – on the very day they won. A 2-1 victory over Venda Football Club dragged them up to 28 points with one game left, but the maths offered no escape. They cannot reach the 32-point mark required to survive, even if University of Pretoria slip in their final outing.

So the win felt hollow. The verdict had already been written.

Muzeu’s goals, same ending

For Namibian striker Bethuel Muzeu, this is relegation with Leopards for the second time in the NFD. The club went down in 2023, then bought the NFD status of Cape Town All Stars to stay in the division. They fought their way back into the league’s structure. They could not fight off gravity a second time.

Muzeu, 26, has been one of the few constants in a chaotic period. He sits on eight league goals this season, a respectable return in a struggling side. This is his fourth campaign with Leopards, after hitting 12 goals in 2024 and 17 in 2025. The numbers tell you he delivers. The table tells you it was not enough.

He started this season like a man determined to drag a club uphill by himself, scoring most of his goals in the first half of the campaign. Then the tide turned. As Leopards sank deeper into trouble, the supply lines dried up and so did his scoring touch. Forwards thrive on rhythm; relegation battles suffocate it.

Kazapua’s delayed start

Behind him, another Namibian rode out a different kind of storm.

Veteran goalkeeper Loydt Kazapua, 37, arrived at the start of the season on a free transfer after leaving Sekhukhune United in the Premiership. He signed a two-year deal, a clear indication that Leopards saw him as a cornerstone for stability.

Instead, he walked into chaos.

A transfer ban struck the club before a ball was kicked. Leopards could not register enough players. They did not even have a registered goalkeeper. In their opening match, they had to line up with 10 men, and captain and defender Thendo Mukumela pulled on the gloves for the first three games of the campaign.

Kazapua was already in the building, but not on the team sheet. Paperwork, not performance, kept him out. By the time the ban was lifted and he could finally be registered, Leopards were already lodged deep in the relegation zone.

Once available, he became first-choice and enjoyed regular minutes. He brought experience, presence, and a measure of calm. Results refused to follow. The damage had been done early, in those shambolic opening weeks when a club trying to survive a ruthless division had to improvise a goalkeeper and play short-handed.

Turmoil on the touchline

The instability did not stop on the pitch.

Leopards reshuffled their technical team three times in one season. Joel Masutha began the campaign in charge, but he was gone by November. Mabuti Khenyeza stepped in and lasted only 10 matches. Each change brought new ideas, new instructions, new attempts to halt the slide. None could reverse the momentum.

Clubs rarely survive that level of disruption in a relegation fight. Leopards did not.

They now follow fellow Limpopo side Baroka into the Safa ABC Motsepe League, a sobering fall for two clubs that have spent years trading blows in the professional ranks. The province loses two NFD representatives in one swing.

Namibian presence in the division

While Muzeu and Kazapua prepare for life in the third tier, other Namibians in the same division are chasing very different targets.

Highbury FC, with Ndisiro Kamaijanda and Ngero Katua in their ranks, sit sixth and looking up rather than down. Cape Town City FC – featuring Prins Tjiueza – occupy third place on the log, level on points with the team in fourth as they push hard for a play-off spot. Where Leopards see the trapdoor, others are eyeing the ladder.

One more game, and then the drop

For Leopards, there is still one fixture left: a final-day meeting with eighth-placed Lerumo Lions on Sunday, 17 May at 15h00.

The result will not change their fate. The relegation is sealed, the numbers unforgiving. What it can change is the tone of their exit – and perhaps the next chapter for players like Muzeu and Kazapua, who have shown enough quality to suggest this may not be their last word in South African professional football.