Chippa United limped through the first half of their Betway Premiership season anchored to the bottom of the table after 15 matches, with their prospects mired in uncertainty.
The Gqeberha side have managed just a single victory this season.
As a result of their poor start, they finished 2025 in 16th place on the log with nine points, putting them at risk of relegation.
Nevertheless, Chilli Boys head coach Vusumuzi Vilakazi, 43, remains optimistic that the team will avoid relegation this season.
The fact that “Kanu”, as he is known in the football community, is the team’s fifth coach since the start of the season is not surprising.
Chippa boss Siviwe Mpengesi is notorious for firing and replacing coaches.
Vilakazi replaced coach Luc Eymael in October, whose short tenure was marked by securing the club’s first win of the season in September.
Sinethemba Badela was shown the door just two matches into the season; he was replaced by Musa Nyatama, who was replaced by Morgan Mammila, who later made way for Eymael.
This is Vilakazi’s second stint in Gqeberha.
During the 2023/24 season, the former AmaZulu mentor first came in as the club’s technical director, working with Mammila.
The Chilli Boys earned a point against Kaizer Chiefs in a goalless draw at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium to wrap up the first half of the Betway Premiership campaign.
The coach had hoped to use their home advantage to score three points against Amakhosi, but things did not go as planned.
Though he has seen much improvement in the team since taking over, Vilakazi said there was still a lot that needed to be done.
Scoring is his main goal now, and when the PSL transfer window opens, he plans to add some reinforcements to help the team achieve this.
“It’s unfortunate that I always come to the teams that are fighting relegation and I am expected to do miracles, but I still maintain what I said when I came to Chippa, that Chippa will never go down,” Vilakazi said after the team’s 2-0 defeat to Orlando Pirates.
“They will never be relegated.
“The reason I am saying that is because of the potential that is there in these players.”
He said he planned to take full advantage of the break.
“Our situation is not like other teams, so we can’t go for a holiday as if we are comfortable where we are sitting right now.
“When I came here, in a space of seven days I played against AmaZulu and Magesi.
“The games were coming thick and fast. I did not have much time to work with the team.
“I did not have the preseason with the team, so we will create a mini-preseason by using this time while the Afcon is playing.
“We will have off days here and there, but we will keep on working because we are not like other teams who are comfortable in the positions they are in.
“But we will manage them in terms of giving them off days, but we are working up until maybe the 23rd, where we will give everyone maybe six or seven days to go for Christmas and then come back and start again.
“So, we will keep on working and try to rectify the problem that we have of not being able to convert our chances into goals.
“But the commitment and the hard work, I must say, is top class; these boys are fighting each game.”
Chippa will begin the new year with an away match against newly promoted Orbit College on January 24, followed by another away match against Durban City on January 30.
The team will then return home to face Richards Bay on February 14.
The Herald