The South African Football Association (SAFA) is racing against time to finalise the appointment of Pitso Mosimane as the new Bafana Bafana head coach, with the start of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying campaign now just weeks away.
Although SAFA’s National Executive Committee (NEC) has endorsed Mosimane as its preferred candidate to succeed Hugo Broos, the two parties have yet to put pen to paper, leaving South Africa’s senior men’s national team without a confirmed permanent coach.
SAFA president Danny Jordaan confirmed last weekend that Mosimane had been approved for the position, but indicated that negotiations were still ongoing.
«“The NEC has approved the appointment of coach Pitso to Bafana Bafana, but we still need to tie up some loose ends,” Jordaan said. “We will make a formal announcement of the coach next week.”»
That formal announcement, however, has not materialised, with negotiations reportedly continuing between SAFA and Mosimane’s representatives.
The major stumbling block is understood to have initially been the financial package. Reports indicated that SAFA’s original offer was around R5 million per year, a figure that was not acceptable to Mosimane’s representatives.
SAFA has since reportedly improved the offer to approximately R10 million a year, effectively doubling its initial proposal in an attempt to bring the negotiations to a conclusion. The revised package has brought the two sides closer, although the final contract had still not been signed according to the latest reports.
Mosimane, who previously coached Bafana between 2010 and 2012, is regarded as one of the most decorated South African coaches. He subsequently enjoyed considerable success with Mamelodi Sundowns and Egyptian giants Al Ahly, winning the CAF Champions League three times.
His potential return to the national team comes at a particularly important time for South African football.
Broos’ five-year tenure ended after the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where he guided Bafana to the knockout stage of the tournament for the first time. South Africa were eventually eliminated by Canada in the Round of 32.
With Broos gone, SAFA had identified Mosimane as the man it wanted to lead the next phase of the national team.
The urgency surrounding the appointment is heightened by the fact that Bafana’s AFCON qualification campaign begins in September. According to Reuters, South Africa’s opening qualifiers are against Guinea at home and Eritrea away, as the team begins its campaign for a place at the 2027 tournament to be hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Earlier reports had indicated that SAFA wanted the new coach appointed by early August to allow sufficient preparation time before the qualifiers. SAFA technical committee chairperson Jack Maluleka had warned that the association could not afford to delay the process because the qualifiers were approaching rapidly.
The delay has therefore raised concerns about how much preparation time Mosimane, should the deal eventually be concluded, will have with the squad before the first competitive matches.
There is also uncertainty over Mosimane’s technical team. Reports suggest that he could bring trusted members of his coaching staff, while SAFA and the coach would still need to settle several contractual and technical details.
For now, the reported increase from R5 million to R10 million has moved the negotiations forward, but no fully signed agreement has been publicly confirmed.
That leaves SAFA with an increasingly narrow window to complete the deal, officially unveil Mosimane and give him enough time to prepare Bafana for what could be a demanding AFCON qualifying campaign.
For a country that has just returned from its first World Cup knockout appearance, the expectation is that the transition from Broos to Mosimane should be smooth. But with September fast approaching, every day without a confirmed coach could prove costly.
Bafana Bafana’s immediate priority is clear: finalise the Mosimane deal, assemble his technical team and get the national squad ready for the AFCON qualification race.
