Gavin Hunt’s latest spell in South African top-flight football is over.
Durban City confirmed on Monday that the 61-year-old coach has left the club with immediate effect, two days after a 2–0 home defeat to Orlando Pirates that left the newly promoted side eighth in the Betway Premiership table.
According to Soccer Laduma, City announced that Hunt had departed “by mutual consent” following a review of the club’s football strategy, with the board concluding that “a new approach is required” to meet its objectives.
Assistant coach Pitso Dlada will oversee the first team on an interim basis, starting with Wednesday’s league match against Orbit College.
Club chairman Farook Kadodia thanked Hunt for his work since taking over before the 2025/26 season, saying the decision was taken “with the club’s best interests at heart” and that they “wish him well for the future”.
He added that the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations break will be used to appoint a permanent successor so the new coach has a clean runway to prepare for the second half of the campaign.
The timing underlines how quickly pressure can build in the Premiership.
Hunt’s City had recorded six wins, four draws and six defeats in 16 league games – solid mid-table form for a club still settling into new surroundings and a rebrand from Maritzburg United – but three losses in four matches, including the Pirates result, prompted the board to act.
Gavin Hunt’s coaching journey in South African football
Hunt’s dismissal closes another chapter in one of South African football’s most decorated coaching careers.
A rugged right-back in his playing days, he spent virtually his entire professional career at Hellenic before an Achilles tendon injury pushed him into management in the mid-1990s
He started out at Seven Stars and Hellenic, then built a reputation as a coach who could organise struggling sides and squeeze value from modest squads at Black Leopards and Moroka Swallows, winning the Nedbank Cup with Swallows in 2004.
Hunt’s golden period came at SuperSport United, where he claimed three consecutive Premiership titles from 2007/08 to 2009/10 and added another league crown with Bidvest Wits in 2016/17, along with the MTN8 trophy in 2016.
Those runs cemented his status as a serial league winner and multiple-time PSL Coach of the Season.
Later stints at Kaizer Chiefs and Chippa United were more turbulent, ending in early exits as those clubs reset their own projects.
He returned to SuperSport United in 2022, then accepted the challenge at newly rebranded Durban City ahead of their Premiership return, bringing his tally of top-flight games coached to well over 1 000.
As of Monday evening, there were no concrete reports linking Gavin Hunt to a specific next job.
