Molefi Ntseki takes charge of Bafana for Chan qualifier against Egypt

Published 3 weeks ago• 3 minute read

Former national team and Kaizer Chiefs coach Molefi Ntseki will take charge of the Bafana Bafana developmental combination’s African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifier against Egypt, which has been moved from Friday to Sunday.

Ntseki comes in because Bafana assistant coach Helman Mkhalele, who was in charge of the team, has important tasks to perform in head coach Hugo Broos' senior side.

The change of date for the first leg match at Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein comes because “the North Africans had difficulties acquiring their visas”, the South African Football Association (Safa) said. The second leg in Egypt is on March 9.

South Africa have generally battled to put together strong combinations for qualifiers for the Chan, the Confederation of African Football’s national team tournament for locally-based players.

“The North Africans requested the postponement when it became apparent they would only receive the documents on the day of the match on Friday and the request was acceded to,” Safa said.

“The match will still be played at Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein and kickoff is now at 5pm on Sunday.”

Previously, during Broos’ tenure since 2021, Mkhalele took charge of South African teams in Chan qualifiers.

However, as has been the case sometimes in the Southern African Cosafa Cup, the job of head coach for the qualifiers for the next Chan — being hosted in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in August — has been outsourced late to Ntseki.

Safa technical committee chair Jack Maluleke explained why Ntseki has been appointed for these matches.

“Remember, in the last national executive committee (NEC) meeting, the Safa technical committee recommended coach Ntseki after he was interviewed to head the technical development of Safa, specifically the academies and junior teams as a manager,” he said.

“After we got information that the South African senior national team coach requested that Mkhalele 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 realised that after the NEC endorsed the name of Ntseki, we had to check who could replace Mkhalele. 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.

“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.”

Safa said the team “assembled in Johannesburg on Wednesday and then travelled to the Free State with Maluleke and South Africa U-20 coach Raymond Mdaka. Mdaka will assist former Bafana mentor Ntseki, who joined the camp this evening and will now assume the reins as coach of the team”.

Mkhalele late last week announced a side consisting mostly of out-of-favour players and some up-and-coming youngsters from Betway Premiership clubs.

These included Monnapule Saleng, Azola Tshobeni and Sphamandla Gumede of Orlando Pirates; Aden McCarthy and Bongani Sam of Kaizer Chiefs and Neo Maema and Kutlwano Letlhaku of Mamelodi Sundowns.

Samkelo Zulu (SuperSport United)

Sammy Seabi (Unattached)

Jody February (Mamelodi Sundowns)

Azola Tshobeni (Orlando Pirates)

Sphamandla Gumede (Orlando Pirates)

Neo Maema (Mamelodi Sundowns)

Aden McCarthy (Kaizer Chiefs)

Yanga Madiba (Orlando Pirates)

Bilal Baloyi (SuperSport United)

Kutlwano Letlhaku (Mamelodi Sundowns)

Yandisa Mfolozi (SuperSport United)

Monnapule Saleng (Orlando Pirates)