Bafana Bafana face tough battle against Uganda in Afcon qualifiers ...

Against the backdrop of the chaos currently engulfing his employers, the South African Football Association (Safa), Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos and his team have the important task of securing their qualification for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Morocco.

Safa president Danny Jordaan and the association’s chief of finance, Gronie Hluyo, are out on R20,000 bail each, and are facing charges of fraud and theft amounting to more than R1-million, alongside Grit Communications boss Trevor Neethling. 

Traditionally, Jordaan accompanies Bafana Bafana to their international games and, prior to his arrest on Wednesday, would have been ready to travel to Uganda with the men’s senior national side for their penultimate match to qualify for Afcon.

The match takes place at the Mandela National Stadium in Kampala, on Friday, 15 November. 

Jordaan’s bail conditions stipulate that he must provide the investigating officer with a written itinerary at least 72 hours before departure when his work takes him out of the country. 

This tight turnaround means Jordaan will have to sit the match out, with Bafana Bafana already en route to Kampala. 

Bafana Bafana – who hopefully won’t be distracted by the shenanigans at Safa headquarters – need a minimum of two points from their final two qualifier games for Afcon 2025. 

They currently sit second in Group K, with eight points and trailing leaders of the mini-league, Uganda, by two points. 

More importantly, the South Africans are four points ahead of third-placed Congo-Brazzaville. The central African nation still has a mathematical chance of qualifying if they win both their remaining matches and Bafana Bafana fail to pick up any points. 

A victory for Broos and his team would see them leapfrog the Cranes into first place, with both teams qualifying for Morocco. The top two in each group automatically qualify for the continental showpiece. 

If they fail to earn a victory against the high-flying Ugandans, they will have another opportunity to clinch qualification when they face South Sudan at the Cape Town Stadium on Tuesday, 19 November.

“Being the bronze medallists of the last Afcon and looking at our opponents in the group (who I respect), they are not the biggest teams in Africa. It would be a shame if we could not qualify. We need three or two points to have security,” Broos said.

“We can write some history by qualifying two times in a row, which last happened a long time ago. So that will be a nice achievement to end the fantastic 2024 we’ve had,” Broos added. 

Indeed the team last achieved consecutive Afcon qualifications in 2006/2008. Since then, their appearances at the tournament have been patchy at best.  

“We will try to qualify in the first game [against Uganda], which won’t be easy, because we play an opponent that has already qualified. They are confident.

“They’ve had a very [good] qualifying campaign and they will be playing at home. But we’ve won difficult games in the past and we know we can do it. We have the quality and are confident,” Broos stated. 

The Belgian coach said that if his team loses both matches and fails to qualify, five minutes later he “will be on a flight back to Belgium”. 

Broos has handed Stellenbosch goalkeeper Sage Stephens his first international call-up. Though he will be third in the pecking order, behind captain Ronwen Williams and Sipho Chaine, the 33-year-old is elated to finally be part of the national setup after a number of impressive displays for his club.

“To have your first call up at 33, for me, it’s an incredible feat. The only thing I would like to say is, it’s never over until you decide it’s over,” Stephens said. “Ultimately, everyone has got their own journey to follow and their own path to lead.”

To ensure that they avoid being under pressure against South Sudan on home soil, victory against Uganda will be pivotal for Broos and his men. Victory will also grant an opportunity to hand the fringe players a run from the start. DM