Orlando Pirates

The rivalry dates to a first meeting on 24 January 1970, and it carries weight the club would rather not revisit: a stadium crush during a derby at Ellis Park in 2001 killed 43 supporters. A second, older neighbourhood rivalry with Moroka Swallows produced what was once billed as the Original Soweto Derby, while since 1996 the sharpest title fight has run against Mamelodi Sundowns.

The club began as Orlando Boys Club, formed in 1937 by workers from the local diamond mines, with James Mpanza credited as founder. The switch to Orlando Pirates came after the side won the Johannesburg League around 1939 or 1940; one account holds that player Andrew Bassie proposed the new name, borrowed from the Errol Flynn film The Sea Hawk. The badge still carries the pirate with sword and feathered hat, and a gold star was added after the club won the CAF Champions League in 1995, beating ASEC Mimosas in the final on a goal from Jerry Sikhosana.

Irvin Khoza has run the club since 1991, having served as club secretary from 1980, and the growth under his chairmanship shows in the trophy count: ten league titles, alongside repeated wins in the Nedbank Cup and MTN8. Ellis Park itself later became partly Pirates property — a 51% stake bought in 2005, making the club the first Black-majority owners of a South African stadium, though home matches stayed at Orlando.

Benedict Vilakazi is the name still cited first when the club's history comes up: 52 league goals across his time at the club between 1999 and 2007, a product of the Pirates academy.