Sports Reporter
BAFANA Bafana’s stunning transformation, which has seen them qualify for the 2015 Nations Cup finals with a game to spare, just a year after Danny Jordaan took over as SAFA president promising to make them competitive again, has cast the spotlight back on the Warriors. Jordaan inherited a national football team that had last qualified for the 2008 Nations Cup finals, playing at the 2013 Nations Cup finals as hosts, and which had suffered the humiliation of failing to read the regulations, in the 2012 Nations Cup qualifiers, celebrating when they had failed in their mission.

He also took over a national association stalked by match-fixing allegations, which remain a subject being investigated by FIFA, with convicted match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal having infiltrated SAFA ahead of the 2010 World Cup finals.

Current SAFA chief executive, Dennis Mumble, and Bafana Bafana team manager, Barney Kujane, were part of the five South African football officials, implicated in a FIFA report, in the match-fixing scandal in the lead-up to the 2010 World Cup finals.

Former SAFA president Kirsten Nematandani, chief executive Leslie Sidibe and members of their referees’ department, Lindile “Ace” Kika, Steve Goddard and Adeel Carelse, were also named in the FIFA report.

The SAFA officials were suspended towards the end of 2012 but the association was forced to overturn those suspensions after FIFA ruled that due process hadn’t been followed.
Last week, FIFA secretary-general, Jerome Valcke, said four of the SAFA officials have been asked to write to the Zurich-organisation’s Ethics Committee in relation to the case.

Puma, the German sportswear manufacturing giant, last year abruptly ended their sponsorship deal, to supply kit for the South African national teams, saying that the match-fixing scandal had dragged their name into the mud.

Jordaan, who took over as SAFA president in September last year, promised to revive Bafana Bafana, despite all the challenges stalking the team and the association and, in his first campaign as South African football boss, has guided the national team to their first Nations Cup finals, by qualification, in six years.

Bafana Bafana beat Sudan 2-1 in Durban on Saturday to secure their place in Equatorial Guinea next year, with a round of matches to spare, in a group they have led from day one, pushing African champions Nigeria into the shadows.

Under local coach Shakes Mashaba, Bafana Bafana are unbeaten, in five qualifying matches, winning three, including the two they have played away from home, and the goal scored by Sudan, on Saturday, was the first they have conceded in the qualifiers.

A team that was now being shunned, by their fans, attracted about 40 000 supporters in Durban for their tie against Sudan as they booked their ticket to Equatorial Guinea.
Jordaan, who visited Bafana Bafana in their dressing room soon after their win, said this was a milestone achievement. “You will see tomorrow, and the next few days, the impact of what you have done today. You have done an incredible thing for this country and I must thank you for that,” said Jordaan.

“I should also take this opportunity to thank all our sponsors for the support, thanks to government, Patrice Motsepe for travelling this long road with us, and everyone who has made this a great success.

“Most importantly, our gratitude as the Association goes to Shakes for turning the fortunes of our national team around and for putting smiles on the faces of millions of South Africans who have been patiently waiting for success. Congratulations on your fine win and all the best in Equatorial Guinea.”
Blade Nzimande, the South African Minister of Education and Higher Learning, also accompanied Jordaan to the dressing room.

“On behalf of the South African government, you are our absolute pride,” he told the players. “Today we have qualified in the right way as a country unlike on previous occasions when we tried other means.

“Remember you are carrying the hopes of the nation and don’t ever forget that.” Zambia also qualified for the 2015 Nations Cup finals after a 1-0 win in Maputo over Mozambique, the same team that emerged triumphant out of a preliminary round pool that included Zimbabwe, Tanzania and South Sudan.

Chipolopolo have now qualified for every Nations Cup finals since Kalusha Bwalya took over as Football Association of Zambia president in March 2008 and won the tournament in 2012 when it was held in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Kalusha has used just three coaches, in six years, in Chipolopolo Nations Cup qualifiers — Harve Renard, Dario Bonetti and local gaffer Honour Janza, who guided the team to success in the current qualifiers for the 2015 Nations Cup finals.

Bonetti guided Zambia to the 2012 Nations Cup finals but was fired before the tournament got underway because FAZ were unhappy with his style of play during the qualifiers and his replacement, Renard, making a comeback, went on to win the tourney.

Interestingly, Zambia failed to qualify for the 2004 Nations Cup finals, finished last in their group at the 2002 Nations Cup finals, with just one point, and picked just two points at the 2002 Nations Cup finals and three points at the 2006 Nations Cup finals.

In sharp contrast, the Warriors have failed to qualify for three Nations Cup finals since Cuthbert Dube took over as ZIFA president in March 2010.
The Warriors failed in their bid to qualify for the 2012 Nations Cup finals, the first campaign supervised by Dube, and also came short, in the 2013 Nations Cup finals, even though they needed just to beat two teams —Angola and Burundi — to qualify for the finals in South Africa.

But things went from bad to worse in the 2015 Nations Cup qualifiers when the Warriors, relegated to the preliminary round phase of the qualifiers, crashed at the first hurdle when they lost to lightweights Tanzania who were then eliminated by Mozambique.

Mozambique have won just one of their five group matches.
The Warriors have had a different coach for every Nations Cup qualifier (Norman Mapeza, with a helping hand from Madinda Ndlovu and Tom Saintfiet — 2012 Afcon; Rahman Gumbo — 2013 Afcon and Ian Gorowa — 2015 Afcon) while Callisto Pasuwa is now the interim coach.

Dube, whose current mandate runs until 2018, will also oversee the 2017 Nations Cup qualifiers, with the Warriors likely to be under another coach, and the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

The ZIFA president said this year, after winning another four-year term, that his association spent a lot of time trying to clean their house, with a lot of resources and effort being put into investigations into Asiagate.

But Jordaan’s success, in his first campaign as boss of SAFA, an organisation whose current chief executive, is the subject of a FIFA investigations into match-fixing, and Bafana Bafana, whose team manager is also under investigation, shows that good leaders can drive their constituency forward, and succeed, even in times of challenges.