Relebohile Mofokeng’s weekend hat-trick was only the third in the top flight this season, coming months after the last two from Puso Dithejane and Fezile Gcaba.
Mofokeng netted three for Orlando Pirates in their comprehensive 6-0 away thrashing of TS Galaxy at the Mbombela Stadium on Saturday.
Dithejane netted the first hat-trick of the season in mid-August when TS Galaxy won 4-1 away against Chippa United in East London, while defender Gcaba’s hat-trick came for Durban City in the opening game of this season’s Carling Knockout against Polokwane City.
Last season there were four hat-tricks with two from Tshegofatso Mabasa for Orlando Pirates, against Marumo Gallants in the league and Baroka in the Nedbank Cup.
In the 2023-24 season there were seven hat-tricks in both league and cup football, including five goals in a game for Iqraam Rayners for Stellenbosch against Polokwane City.
Mofokeng was the 131st player to net a treble or more, in the Premier Soccer League era. In all, there have been 188 hat-tricks netted since the start of the 1996/97 season, with at least one in every season bar the 2017/18 campaign, where there were none.
In the 1998/99 season, when Sundowns pipped Kaizer Chiefs to the title, a record 15 hat-tricks were scored in a single campaign.
Pollen Ndlanya, with a total of six, leads the individual total number of hat-tricks. Four of them were scored for Chiefs and one each during his brief tenures at AmaZulu and Pirates.
The fastest hat-trick in South African football remains the five minutes it took James Chamanga to score from the 20th minute to the 25th minute for Swallows against Platinum Stars in December 2007. He went on to add two more late in the game for a five-goal haul.
Bongolethu Jayiya, then at Cape Town City, took 10 minutes to score a trio of goals from the sixth to the 16th minute in a 4-1 thumping of Chippa United at the Athlone Stadium in April 2017.
A single game delivered three hat-tricks, as well as the only two double hat-tricks in PSL history, when Sundowns broke all records with their 24-0 demolition of Kimberley amateurs Powerlines in the Nedbank Cup in March 2012.
Hlompho Kekana (seven goals), Nyasha Mushekwi (six) and the late Richard Henyekane (five) delivered a steady stream on a day of goal-scoring excess.
The current players with the most hat-tricks are Mabasa and Sundowns forward Peter Shalulile, with three.