The defender has come through the clubs youth and development ranks and is regarded as the replacement for the former captain, Bevan Fransman.

The former Bafana Bafana defender, Fransman, as well as the former Celtic goalkeeper, Bongani Mpandle, were unveiled as two of the new signings at Maritzburg United.

Sibanda is officially the ninth new signing made by the club ahead of their 2016/17 PSL season which gets underway during the last week of August.

Mpandle was named as a member of the Phunya Sele Sele squad eight days ago during the unveiling of their new signings.

However, with the Cameroonian goalkeeper, Patrick Tignyemb, named as Fransman’s replacement in the captaincy role, it is highly unlikely that Mpandle would get much game time this season.

Sello Nduna of Celtic told OFM Sport that they are looking forward to having Sibanda available for the senior side.

“He is from our development team, he played for our MDC (Multichoice Diski Challenge) team and he is a versatile player who will be able to play centre-back as well as centre midfield.

“Fortunately for him, he has been part of the Bloemfontein Celtic setup and we are looking forward to having him do what he did during last season's MDC League.”

Nduna added that while they have nine new players on their books, they are still hunting for two new strikers to give their attack some added sting.

“We still want to beef up our striking department and currently we are still busy looking right here in South Africa and we are also looking beyond the borders of this country to make sure that we acquire at least two top quality strikers.

“Only then we will say that we are ready for the new season which starts in the last week of August.”

Collins Mbesuma, who top-scored with 14 goals last season at Cape Town City F.C. (formally known as Mpumalanga Black Aces), is said to be one of the strikers on Celtic’s radar.

Nduna also confirmed that the team will be unveiling their new strip in mid-August after playing with the same strip for the past two seasons.

Morgan Piek/OFM News