Photo Credit - South Africa Football Association (SAFA).
Molefi Ntseki has been named the new Bafana Bafana coach ahead of their first round of the 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier against Egypt at Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein on Sunday.
According to a statement from South Africa Football Association (SAFA), Nteski, who has already arrived in the team’s camp, will assume the reins as coach of the team ahead of the two-legged fixture against the North Africans.
“The team assembled in Johannesburg on Wednesday, 26 February 2025 and then travelled to the Free State with SAFA Technical Committee Chairman Jack Maluleke and SA U20 coach Raymond Mdaka. Mdaka will assist former Bafana Bafana mentor Molefi Ntseki, who joined the camp this evening and will now assume the reins as coach of the team,” read part of the statement from SAFA.
Explaining the changes, Maluleke, said: “Remember, in the last NEC meeting, the SAFA technical committee recommended coach Molefi Ntseki after he was interviewed to head the technical development of SAFA, specifically the academies and junior teams as a manager.
“After we got information that the South African senior national team coach requested that Helman Mkhalele must be recused from this team because we have the priority of Bafana Bafana playing 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Benin in a few weeks’ time, we agreed.
“Therefore, we as SAFA realized that after the NEC endorsed the name of Molefi Ntseki, we had to check who can replace Mkhalele at this point in time. We thought of him (Ntseki) because he’s the most senior and we requested him to be deployed there on a temporary basis to step in for Helman and he will be assisted by the head coach of the SA U20s (Mdaka).
“Coach Ntseki is there because he’s in the system and we requested him to assist because we needed somebody who can step in because this is an urgent matter.”
Meanwhile, the fixture against Egypt has been pushed to Sunday after Egypt had difficulties with acquiring their visas. According to SAFA, the North Africans requested the fixture to be pushed forward when it became apparent that they would only receive the documents on the day of the match on Friday, 28 February 2025, and the request was acceded to.
Commentaires