City lie second last, one point above SuperSport United, but have played three matches more than the bottom club.
Relegation-threatened Cape Town City, runners-up in the South African Premiership three seasons ago, plunged deeper into trouble on Friday after losing 1-0 away to Richards Bay in Durban.
City lie second last, one point above SuperSport United, but have played three matches more than the bottom club.
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Cape Town have only three matches left — all against top-six opponents — with the first at home to leaders Mamelodi Sundowns.
With bottom club Royal AM expelled from the league this month for not honouring fixtures, no team will be automatically relegated from the richest African national league.
The bottom Premiership club will go into a double-round mini-league with two second division teams for one top-flight place.
A match of few scoring chances was decided on 79 minutes when Thulani Gumede punished slack marking and beat goalkeeper Darren Keet with a rising shot from the edge of the area.
Victory lifted Richards Bay three places to 10th. They have 26 points with four matches remaining.
“Congratulations to Thulani for a spectacular goal. We have used our wingers to good effective this season,” said Richards Bay coach Ronnie Gabriel.
“These were three huge points for us. It did not concern me how we played. All that mattered was winning.”
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Caretaker Cape Town coach Diogo Peral bemoaned poor finishing by a team that has scored just 13 goals in 25 league matches.
“We played good football, built well from the back, and made numerous entries into the area. However, the killer instinct was missing,” he said.
