Fresh from dispatching their Southern African rivals Zambia 3-1 in a friendly match at Gqeberha’s Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium last Saturday, the focus for South Africa’s senior men’s national football team, Bafana Bafana, now switches to two significant events over the coming weeks.
Firstly there is the historic matter of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Draw, set to take place in the American capital Washington DC on 5 December 2026, where the country will learn which of the 42 already qualified nations could potentially stand in Bafana’s pathway to a maiden knockout stage appearance at only their fourth World Cup finals tournament.
With the identity of their World Cup adversaries known on that early December Friday evening, attention will quickly turn to African continental matters with the 35th edition of the biennial Africa Cup of Nations set to kick off in Morocco exactly a month from today.
South African football could not have asked for Bafana to enter that tournament, their 12th participation in the continental spectacle, in a more positive state than the team currently is. More than anything, the role of the country’s legions of supporters will be significant.
It is now high time supporters of the Beautiful Game spanning the length and breadth of this country stop bickering and set aside the club allegiances that are threatening to make our national football team a toxic setup.
Bafana Bafana’s Ronwen Williams
Change of fortune
Under the tutelage of the well travelled and decorated Belgian septuagenarian Hugo Broos (73), who has been at the helm of South Africa’s men’s national football team since May 2021, the fortunes of the once chastised boys in green and gold have drastically changed. We need to keep this momentum and not allow ourselves to be distracted by meaningless politicking.
Since Bafana Bafana’s gallant efforts that saw the much maligned national team reach the semifinals of the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations, eventually nabbing the bronze medal in the tournament held in the Ivory Coast, there has been a newfound optimism and an enduring sense of pride in not just the national side but local football in its entirety.
Heading into that tournament almost two years ago, most South African football fans were just delighted that the team was back sitting at the big table of African football and expectations were understandably low considering how dismally the team had performed for well over a decade.
However, the team quickly recovered from an upsetting 2-0 reversal at the hands of Mali’s Eagles in their Group E opener to hammer SADC region neighbours Namibia 4-0 before a 1-1 draw with Tunisia’s Carthage Eagles saw safe passage to the Round of 16.
Bafana’s ability to unexpectedly pull off an upset was on show again in the Round of 16 as goals from Tebogo Mokoena and Evidence Makgopa saw star-studded tournament favourites Morocco, the fourth best team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, unceremoniously sent packing.
In the quarterfinal tiny island nation Cape Verde, who have just recently qualified for their first FIFA World Cup tournament, were thwarted by Ronwen Williams’ penalty shootout heroics that led to Bafana’s 2-0 win before the tables turned on Bafana as they would fall victim to Nigeria in a 4-2 penalty shootout defeat in the semifinal.
Penalty spotkick favour would turn Bafana’s way once more in the third place playoff as Bafana secured a podium finish with a 6-5 win over the Democratic Republic of Congo. That victory did not only signal Bafana’s first podium finish at AFCON since they came third in the tournament co-hosted by Nigeria and Ghana 25 years ago, but their return as a force to be reckoned with on the continent.
Since being draped in bronze in West Africa in February 2024, Bafana have since gone on to spectacularly qualify for the World Cup in North America in 2026 even in the face of an embarrassing three points deduction saga over fielding an illegible player (Tebogo Mokoena after an accumulation of yellow cards).
On the point of this current generation of players needing all South African football fans to rally behind them, particularly fans of the country’s two most supported clubs Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates and the followers of the country’s current dominant force Mamelodi Sundowns, Bafana Bafana belongs to us all whether it is made up of 60% Orlando Pirates players or not.
Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos
Representing the nation
When those players don the Bafana Bafana jersey they all belong to the nation, they all represent the nation first, therefore their club allegiances become a secondary thought when they step over the whitewash to represent South Africa.
The recent World Cup qualifying has been mired by fans distastefully weaving club politics, borne from the rivalry between the Big Three clubs mentioned above, and it is quickly turning ugly with fans of certain clubs now boldly declaring their anti-Bafana stance on various social media platforms including primarily on X (formerly Twitter).
Unlike in the pre-social media age where vile comments about players or their clubs were only reserved for said players and clubs on the terraces on matchdays, nowadays fans can interact with players and clubs on social media platforms have become a minefield of hateful and hurtful remarks.
The players know this, they are active on social media and so are the clubs they represent, and they see the hurtful, spiteful, and even derogatory remarks volleyed in their direction by some fans.
Amongst some of the contentious topics are allegations that some clubs are gaining favour with the national team selectors over others because of certain “influential” individuals making up the composition of Broos’ technical team.
War of words
This full on war of words, which seems carefully choreographed to destabilize the unity within the national football team set-up, needs to be nipped in the bud before it explodes into a crisis that can send us into a tailspin that will be difficult to emerge from.
It should not matter which club’s players dominate the make up of national team squads, what matters most is that those players are selected on merit and that has undoubtedly been the case under Broos and local fans should be proud that a team made of between 90 and 95% locally based players has qualified South Africa for the World Cup for the first time in 23 years.
It should be a source of pride that a group of players plying their trade in our local Betway Premiership have locked horns with players from Nigeria, Benin and Zimbabwe turning out for clubs in European leagues has qualified us for the “Promised Land” that is the FIFA World Cup for the first time in over two decades.
Those two decades have been a dark period in our football which have seen us suffer the indignity of qualification failure on four occasions with big name players playing in England, Germany, and other recognisable European leagues.
Celebrate growth
Instead of bitter bickering over club allegiances and sowing divisions in the national team, we should be celebrating the growth of our domestic football and chastising anyone attempting to sow divisions within our national team ranks.
For us, the fans, now is the time to show patriotism and rally around one common course which is to ensure that we all fully back Bafana Bafana to go one better at the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco by reaching the final for the first time since 1998 and hopefully winning a second AFCON title to add to their glorious achievement of 1996.
* Samkelo Mtshali writes in his personal capacity
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.
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