Bafana have an Afcon-challenging team taking shape

Bafana Bafana will round off one of their strongest qualifying campaigns for a major tournament when they meet South Sudan in their dead rubber 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) clash at Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday.

And while it’s not being said out loud by the players, there has to be a growing belief that when they go to the tournament in Morocco that spans December 2025 and January 2026, built on the back of their bronze medal this year and with young talent coming through, Bafana might even challenge.

Hugo Broos’s project in progress, who are growing in confidence with each positive stride — and there have been a few in the last two years — will be the first Bafana team to go to a Nations Cup with that thought in the back of their minds since the early 2000s.

The return to Afcon is crucial to continue their progress after coming within losing a penalty shoot-out against Nigeria of reaching the final in Ivory Coast in January and February and earning a best finish in 24 years with third place.

The 2025 campaign started shakily — a late start to the Betway Premiership meant many players had not kicked a ball in anger when Orlando Pirates’ Thalente Mbatha’s last-gasp goals earned a home draw against Uganda and win away against South Sudan in September.

But last month Bafana confirmed their rustiness was a major reason for those results as they thumped Congo 5-0 in Gqeberha and drew away in Brazzaville. On Thursday, South Sudan's first win in Group K at home to Congo saw Bafana through before kicking a ball in their 2-0 win against Uganda in Kampala on Friday.

The Mamelodi Sundowns star who scored the brace that set up the thrashing of Congo at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Teboho Mokoena, said on Sunday Broos, who won the 2017 Nations Cup with a young Cameroon, is forging a competitive Bafana.

“I think he’s built a strong group. We are united here, a family,” the 27-year-old said.

“I think that’s what he did here when he arrived at the national team. For me [personally], I think he gave me that freedom. I’m just myself.

For Mokoena, the venue as Bafana return to Cape Town for the first time in nine years since a friendly against Angola in 2015, is a nostalgic one.

He and boyhood friend from Bethlehem and Sundowns teammate Sipho Mbule both started at former Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki’s Free State-based Harmony Academy. The pair made an impression at the 2015 Under-19 Bayhill Premier Cup in Cape Town in April 2015 before being plucked up by SuperSport United’s development. In an early sign of Mokoena's potential, he helped Harmony beat English Premier League side Swansea City’s juniors 3-1.   

“It was very special for me. I never thought my career would turn out this way,” Mokoena said.

“Honestly I think my surroundings, my family, my partner, mom, grandmother and my friends and even now my child; my coaches, everyone involved played a huge role in my career. And I must thank myself too, because I’ve gone through so much, which people don’t know about, and managed to pull through to be where I am now.”

Mokoena was Bafana’s star outfield player of this year’s Nations Cup. Sundowns teammate Ronwen Williams — another player among many in recent years groomed at SuperSport before a migration to the Brazilians — was goalkeeper of the tournament. The Downs and Bafana captain’s exploits in Ivory Coast earned him a Ballon d’Or Yashin Trophy nomination this year.

Sundowns’ right-back Khuliso Mudau, left-back Aubrey Modiba and veteran Themba Zwane in attack were more players from that club to form Bafana’s spine.

Any competitive outfit needs not just an excellent coach but also a strong leader on the field. Mokoena said Williams, who he joined as a teammate when the midfielder was promoted at SuperSport before both moved to Downs in July 2022, is such a general.

“He’s a good leader. He doesn’t talk much. When he speaks sometimes he’s very harsh, but he has the attributes of a leader and he shows it on and off the field.

 “I’m very proud of him to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or — who would have thought?”

Mbatha's dying-seconds goals from the edge of the area to rescue the results in September came in fighting performances from a rusty Bafana and were made more remarkable given the midfielder was playing his first two matches. Mokoena's strikes against Congo, one from a superb free-kick, and Maswanganyi's beauty on Friday against Uganda show a side enjoying its football.

Frontline stars like Mokoena, Mudau and Modiba should make way against Group K’s bottom-placed team on Tuesday. Broos will look to field youngsters such as Relebohile Mofokeng and players in need of game time such as Patrick Maswanganyi, Luke le Roux, Fawaaz Basadien, Devin Titus, Sipho Chaine and Sage Stephens against South Sudan.

Apart from a superb year in which the South Africans have followed their Afcon heroics by going unbeaten, the quality of some of Bafana's goals, coming as a result of some beautiful build-ups, really indicate this is a team high on confidence. That statement alone would have sounded like one tinged with some insanity for most of the last two decades. It says a lot that it can now be uttered reasonably sensibly.

A qualification with two matches to spare from a side used to subjecting its supporters to being glued to calculators on the final day is another indicator.

Mbatha's dying-seconds goals from the edge of the area to rescue the results in September came in fighting performances from a rusty Bafana and were made more remarkable given the midfielder was playing his first two matches. Mokoena's strikes against Congo, one from a superb free-kick, and Maswanganyi's beauty on Friday against Uganda show a side enjoying its football.

Overconfidence against the wooden spoonists seems the biggest factor that might prevent the South Africans engaging in something of a romp in the Mother City (6pm). Should the emerging Bafana Broos seems sure to put out produce an entertaining win for the capacity crowd it would serve further notice of their newfound depth, exciting mix of established and emerging stars and confidence as another Afcon campaign beckons — this one perhaps even better than the last.