Themba Zwane ended his 12-match goal drought after finding the net in Mamelodi Sundowns’ 2-0 victory over Swallows FC at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Tuesday.

For the first 63 minutes, the visitors’ defense kept the home team from scoring. Then, in just four minutes, Neo Maema and Zwane scored for a club that wants to win its sixth straight league title.

Maema fired a shot past goalie Thakasani Mbanjwa from inside the box, and when Zwane scored from close range in Pretoria, the Soweto team Swallows had no chance of coming back.

The win gave Sundowns a seven-point lead over SuperSport United, another team from Pretoria, as the championship is about to reach the halfway point.

Sundowns has been the best team in South Africa for the past 10 years, beating out teams like Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates. They have 34 points after 14 games.

Even though they sold three of their best players to Sundowns, SuperSport has done better than expected. Their 27 points come from a hard-fought 1-0 win at Cape Town City.

Richards Bay, which was just promoted, has 26 points, Chiefs has 24, Pirates and Chippa United each have 19, and AmaZulu has 18. But Sundowns already has the title in the bag.

Swallows have lost two games in a row since German Ernst Middendorp took over as coach last week. This is the third coach the once-great club has had this season, and they are now in the relegation zone.

The fact that SuperSport sold South Africa’s captain and goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, as well as midfielders Teboho Mokoena and Sipho Mbule, to Sundowns, keeps the experts guessing.

After only getting one point from their first three league games, they’ve only lost one of their last 11 under coach Gavin Hunt, who is back at United for a second time.

Bradley Grobler won the game in Cape Town by heading in a cross in the 82nd minute. This was his seventh goal and tied him with Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana of Chiefs for the most goals.

Photo by Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix