Seasoned campaigner Wayde Jooste is eager to use his experience to help Highbury FC push for a long-awaited promotion to the Betway Premiership this season.
At 34, the veteran has built an impressive journey through South Africa’s premier soccer leagues, wearing the jerseys of Bloemfontein Celtic, Golden Arrows, Highlands Park, Orlando Pirates and Stellenbosch, among others.
The versatile player was also in the Bafana Bafana squad that finished as runners-up at the 2024 African Nations Championship.
Jooste returned home by signing with Highbury before the start of the Motsepe Foundation Championship after being released by Stellenbosch, where he spent the latter half of the 2025/26 season, making 12 appearances.
Now he is driven to help promote the Yellow Nation to the PSL.
“Before I actually signed my contract, I spoke to the director of the team, and he told me, ‘Look, come home, help your home team get to the PSL’,” Jooste said.
“As much as it would be a nice individual accolade, it would be a nice headline to write — ‘Home-boy takes club to the PSL’.
“I just think Gqeberha deserves a home-grown team that has home-grown talent, and that has given youngsters in the area a chance to get to the professional ranks.
“I think it’s a good thing that they want to push the club to get to the PSL, and even getting to the PSL would give not just the players, but also other people from the city job opportunities within the club and on match days.
“So, it’s a big opportunity, not only for the players involved, but also for the people of Gqeberha.”
After being away for many seasons, Jooste said it still felt unreal to be back home.
“I guess returning home is a blessing,” he said.
“It’s nice to be back home; it still feels unreal at times because when I am out in the mall, people see me and say, ‘Welcome back home, it’s good to see you at home’, and that is a very nice feeling, and I am enjoying it.
“I’ve played 13 seasons in the PSL, and I mean that comes with a lot of hard work.
“So, hopefully a lot of the youngsters can take that from me and the way I live my life off the field.
“If they can adopt that, because that is also for longevity in your career as well.
“Honestly, for me, I feel like it’s a blessing to even spend more than five seasons in the PSL, and this is my 14th season playing professionally.
“So, hopefully they can see that, and hopefully my experience will rub off on everybody, and we can take it in the right direction.”
Highbury are third on the log with nine points from four matches.
After three straight victories, the Gqeberha side tasted their first defeat this season when they lost 1-0 to Magesi FC in their last league fixture.
Despite the loss, Jooste said the team was on the right track in terms of their ambitions for promotion this season. However, there is plenty of room for improvement.
Highbury host Gomora United at Nelson Mandela University Stadium on Friday.
Coach Vusumuzi Vilakazi’s troops will be aiming to return to their winning ways and secure their fourth win of the season.
“Our loss against Magesi is water under the bridge,” Jooste said.
“We know what a good team we have; we know the quality that we have; and we also know what went wrong in that game.
“We know we had a whole lot of chances to kill the game, and we didn’t.
“Now, we move on to the next one, and hopefully we can pick up from where we left off on the first three games.”
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