Kaizer Chiefs have confirmed that young sensation Wandile Duba has joined the first team on a full-time basis from the club's DStv Diski Challenge team.
Duba has been a breath of fresh air in the Chiefs' reserves. However, his promotion to the first team took time because he was still busy with Grade 12 exams.
Nevertheless, the club Head of Technical and Youth Development Academy Molefi Ntseki confirmed that Duba and Mduduzi Shabalala will no longer play in the Diski Challenge but will be regular members of the first team, while Samkelo Zwane will train with the first team but also play in the Diski Challenge.
Shabalala was promoted to Amakhosi's first team at the beginning of the season but spent the first round playing in the Reserve League and made cameo appearances in the first team.
"Because of the quality that was assembled for the Engen competition and the DDC, we saw three of our Reserve Team players getting promoted to the first team, Mduduzi Shabalala, Samkelo Zwane and Wandile Duba," Ntseki explained.
"From 1 December they started training full-time with the first team squad, because before that Mdu and Duba were still at school and writing exams. Samkelo will train with the first team but still play for the DDC team."
"We are very happy to see our development players progressing to the first team because players these days are very expensive so it's good to develop players that understand the culture and tradition of the club."
Ntseki added: "We give credit to all the development coaches who contributed to the progress of these players, but also commend the first team coach for his understanding of the development of players at our academy. After proper profiling and assessment, coach Zwane identified these three players for promotion to his squad."
Chiefs Reserves, coached by Vela Khumalo, ended the season's first round, sitting in position six in the Diski Challenge. They are just five points behind log leaders Cape Town City FC.
Ntseki said they are pleased with the improvement and growth shown by the young players.
"We had five players from the team representing South Africa in the Cosafa Under-20 in eSwatini and another three representing the national Under-23 Olympic team.
"So, when you look at our development structures, you can see that we are developing good quality players, not only for Kaizer Chiefs but for the national teams as well," concluded the former Bafana Bafana coach.