South Africa will host the 2013 Nations Cup following an agreement this week between the SA Football Association and the Libyan Football Federation.

The Libyan federation thought it was in its best interests to swop its hosting rights in 2013 with South Africa, which had been earmarked as organiser of the Nations Cup in 2017.

Confirmation by the Confederations of African Football of the awarding to South Africa of the hosting rights in 2013 will be made on September 28, when the three parties (Safa, the Libyan federation and CAF) meet in Cairo.

"In terms of the agreement, Libya will host the 2017 Afcon, which had been awarded to South Africa, while Safa will take over the hosting of the 2013 Afcon tournament, as well as of the 2014 African Nations Cup [for development teams], which was supposed to be played in Libya," Safa said.

"The agreement comes following the political upheaval in Libya but is subject to ratification by the CAF at its next executive committee [meeting]."

For the first time in CAF history, the hosts of three successive tournaments were chosen at the same time. Libya were awarded the 2013 Afcon, Angola 2010 and Gabon and Equatorial Guinea will jointly host next year.

Nigeria was the fourth nation in the running, but missed out.

Bafana Bafana, as hosts, won the Nations Cup in 1996 - their inaugural appearance in the continental showpiece.

"Libya would have needed time to reconstruct their facilities in just over a year before they would have to host the tournament," Safa vice-president Danny Jordaan said.

"They felt it would be in their best interests to swop with South Africa, because it would give them time to sort out the political issues there as well."

Jordaan, who was the brains behind bringing last year's World Cup to South Africa, said Safa had proved that it was capable of hosting such big events after last year's tournament.

"Our World Cup last year was hailed by Fifa and some of the critics as one of the best in decades," he said.

"The Nations Cup should then be as successful.

"It will be a milestone for South Africa and we already have the best hotels and training facilities. Imagine players like Didier Drogba [Ivory Coast], Michael Essien [Ghana] and Samuel Eto'o [Cameroon] playing here in 2013."

The Democratic Republic of Congo withdrew from the bid for 2015 and 2017, leaving South Africa and Morocco as the only candidates.

Morocco was awarded 2015 and South Africa was left with 2017.

Bafana, who named their 24-man squad to face Niger in a Nations Cup qualifier on September 4, will have one foot in January's Nations Cup if they win in Niamey.

But they will not play in qualifiers for the 2013 edition because they will take part in the tournament as hosts.