Orlando Pirates DStv Diski Challenge [DDC] coach Joseph Makhanya has reflected on Relebohile Mofokeng and Mohau Nkota’s journey to the Soweto giants’ first team and the challenges the duo faced on their way to prominence.

Mofokeng has been a hot property ever since he made his Pirates senior team debut toward the end of the 2022/23 season, catching the eye with his performances. The 20-year-old lived up to the hype in the subsequent campaign.

Mofokeng upped the ante in the ongoing 2024/25 season, with 10 goals and 13 assists to his name in 38 appearances across all competitions so far. The dazzling display, in addition to the incredible end product, intensified interest in the exciting youngster.

Furthermore, Mofokeng forced his way into Hugo Broos’s plans at Bafana Bafana, making his national team debut in June 2024 against Zimbabwe in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. 

The Bucs starlet opened his Bafana account against Lesotho during the March 2025 FIFA international break.

Now, with the sensation heavily tipped for a move abroad, the Buccaneers’ legend credited the club’s scouting network for unearthing the gem, Jose Riveiro for swiftly integrating the player into the first team, including the DDC program for providing a smooth pathway to the elite league.

“We’ve got a good scouting network, especially with coach Mxolisi [Mngomezulu], who has been doing a lot of scouting for the team as well. So, Rele [Mofokeng] was found through the ranks of School of Excellence,” Makhanya told SuperSport TV.

“So, he needed to understand how we want him to play when he got to DDC because DDC gives you a bit of what is expected in the first team. You can see now that he’s not fazed by the expectations in the first team.

“Again, we are going to give credit to the first team coaches for fine-tuning him, the timing of introducing them [youngsters], they look like they are ready whenever they are introduced. But the readiness starts here [in DDC] as well, whereby they are being pushed.”

However, Makhanya says the journey to the top was not smooth sailing for both Mofokeng and Nkota, who presented tactical challenges and had to be converted to their current positions. 

The 43-year-old mentor also revealed that the 20-year-old speedy Nkota was scouted through a Pirates program.

“You look at [Mohau] Nkota, at some point it was said that he’s a striker, we had to convert him because even with Rele it was said that he’s a player that plays behind the central no.10. We decided to start him [Nkota] on the wide areas so that at least he gets to understand what it means to be an offensive player for Pirates,” he added.

“Now that he’s slowly getting into it, Rele can be slowly turned into a central no.10 with better understanding because now you can see he can take a lot of challenges inside the vertical lines as well, especially inside the field of play.

“Mohau was also scouted from a program where we constantly invite [players] because we are not picky in terms of inviting. If we see a player somewhere, I’m more than willing to invite him so that he can also be given an opportunity because we are a team that gives players an opportunity. We don’t care about the background; we care about the talent the player has.”