SOUTH AFRICA COACH MASHABA SAYS BAFANA HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS

When South African football officials were looking for a new Bafana Bafana coach, Carlos Queiroz and Stephen Keshi were among the names floated, but after much speculation authorities turned to the tried and tested and appointed Ephraim 'Shakes' Mashaba. FIFA.com spoke to the coach, who is in his third stint with the national team.

Mashaba: Bafana have unfinished business

Ephraim 'Shakes' Mashaba has tasted success both as a player – captaining one of South Africa's glamour clubs, Orlando Pirates, to four titles as a 23-year-old in his first season with the club – and as a coach. He was first given the task of handling the South African national team in 1992, when he was appointed care-taker coach after Screamer Tshabalala was sacked. Ten years later, he was again appointed, but this time on a permanent basis.

However, after taking the team to the 2004 CAF Africa Cup of Nations finals, he was suspended and then dismissed just days before the start of the competition in Tunisia after refusing to bow to pressure from officials. He has now been given the job for the third time and Mashaba says he was a natural choice. “I know that I can do the job, and I applied for the position, so why should I have been surprised. I am looking forward to being in charge of the team. It is an advantage that I have already been Bafana Bafana coach. I am particularly pleased as it gives me an opportunity and the chance to complete what I did not complete when I was coach before.”

To do that, he needs to guide the team through Group A of the 2015 Cup of Nations qualifiers, which also includes Congo, Nigeria and Sudan, creating a path to the finals in Morocco. “It is a tough group and it became worse with the inclusion of Congo,” said Mashaba, referring to the Congolese taking the place of Rwanda after the Amavubi were disqualified for fielding an ineligible player. The Red Devils made the most of their unexpected reprieve by beating the reigning African champions Nigeria 3-2 in Calabar this past weekend. “I always knew that Congo's inclusion would make it more difficult and their victory in Nigeria just confirmed that. Everybody in this group will have to play hard and double their efforts to succeed.”

After winning his first matches in charge on both previous occasions with the national team (1-0 against Congo in 1992 and 4-1 against Swaziland in 2002), Mashaba again got off to a winning start this time around as South Africa won 3-0 in Sudan in their opening qualifier with all three goals coming in the first half. He says that the team had gone to Sudan to win. “We always knew that if we could hold them in the first 45 minutes, we would have a great chance. When we went into the break without conceding a goal, we knew that we could beat them. We were all over them after the break and as fatigue took its toll on them, we converted our chances. The result gave us a great deal of confidence and will help us on the road ahead.”

Mashaba has previously also been in charge of the South African U-20 and Olympic sides, and in 1997 he made history when he became the first coach to take a South Africa team to the world stage after his side finished runner-up at the African championships to qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Malaysia.

He has also qualified a youth side for next year's African U-20 Championships in Senegal. “It is an advantage having worked with youth teams, as I know many of the players who are now in contention for a place in the national side. I have been involved with these junior players for a long time. We are bringing in new players and will then decide how many we can throw into the deep end, so to say.”

After reaching an all-time high of 16 on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking in 1996 and winning the continental title, South Africa has struggled to keep that level of performance. 

To streamline efforts to bring back the team to its former glory days, the South African Football Association has come up with a plan they call Vision 2022, which is geared toward producing internationally successful national teams that qualify for continental and global finals and culminates in a side competitive at the 2022 FIFA World Cup Russia. Mashaba is determined to play his part in ensuring that vision. “There is nothing else, but to win games. 

There is nothing that beats that. Consistency brings results and that will bring Bafana Bafana back to where it is.”

FIFA.com