The South African netball team are set to take the next step in their campaign to become one of the top five teams in the world when they take part in the African qualifying games in Mamelodi from Monday to Thursday.

Eight teams — Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe — have confirmed their participation in the tournament, which will determine the two countries to join Malawi in the world championships in Singapore next year.

Malawi have already qualified, as they finished in fifth place in the last world championships in New Zealand in 2007.

The teams have been divided into two pools and will play three round robin matches, after which the top two teams from each pool play one another to determine positions one to four, while the bottom teams will fight it out for positions five to eight. Each team will play six matches.

Proteas coach Carin Strauss did not expect South Africa to have many problems qualifying, but said she was taking nothing for granted. “We’re the number one team in Africa, but you can never be complacent,” she said.

“A few years ago, we were surprised by Uganda, who have a very different style of play, so we have to be prepared and to be able to adapt to whatever is thrown at us.”

The Proteas have been in a training camp in preparation for the Games, and Strauss said she was trying to get the players to take a step up to the next level. “I want to win every one of the six matches we play this week, and I want to win by big margins,” she said.

“If we can’t take that step up, then we have wasted the time we spent in New Zealand earlier this year. If we can’t beat these teams by at least 25 goals, then what will happen when we play teams like Australia, New Zealand and England,” Strauss asked.