New buzz for Bees duo

AMBITIOUS ABC Motsepe League team EC Bees have signed two former Premier Soccer League players as the team hopes to make the playoffs.

Bees have roped in former Mamelodi Sundowns influential player Siyabulela Shai and former Bidvest Wits winger SiphoSihle Mtule with the provincial powerhouse hoping to eventually gain promotion to the National First Division at the end of the season.

The two players were only registered on Thursday and they have been with Bees for two weeks.

Both players, who have previously been on the books of Chippa United, travelled with the team to Port Elizabeth for the game against 14th-placed Swartkops Valley United Brothers at the Motherwell NU2 Stadium last night.

Shai, the son of Sundowns legend Isaac Shai, was signed from the Brazilians while Mtule who was on loan to Chippa was signed from NFD side Royal Eagles.

Bees team manager Zama Nene said they were delighted with the acquisition of the two experienced players.

“Hopefully if they meet the coach's requirements they will be able to play against Orlando Pirates on the 12th of March,” she told Saturday Dispatch yesterday.

Bees will play the club's biggest match against Pirates in the Nedbank Cup last 32 game at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane.

Nene said the younger inexperienced players in the team would learn a lot from the two new recruits.

“We hope to achieve a lot of freshness – they've got a lot of experience. They will help the young ones in order to enter the football fame because it's not so easy to play in that league [PSL].

“We want our players to feed off on positive fame – not on negative fame,” she said making an example of long-time Pirates defender Happy Jele as a perfect example of staying grounded.

Bees also promoted former Bloemfontein Celtic and Kaizer Chiefs player Moketi Tsotetsi from being a player into an assistant coach.

Former Celtic goalkeeper Moses Thembalethu was made the goalkeeper coach.

This, Nene said, was proof that Bees are serious about gaining NFD promotion.

“I think when the technical management sit down and chat about bringing a particular person to help here and there, they calculate the long-term. Their decisions have not wronged us at all,” she said.

Bees are the only team yet to lose in the league. “There is something right that we're doing at our technical board. We just need to stay strong as a family and take one league game at a time then all will be fine,” said Nene.