Shakes gives his take on Bafana
BAFANA Bafana coach Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba seems set to take the national team into the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, despite reports he might not have survived the past week.
Mashaba — with the coaches of the men’s and women’s Olympic teams, and SA Under-20 and U-17 sides — reported back on their varying success or failures in recent competitions to the SA Football Association technical committee on Friday and yesterday.
Mashaba’s report back detailed Bafana’s failed 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.
The technical committee, chaired by Natasha Tsichlas, was expected to examine the report and will report back on it to Safa’s next National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on September 24.
With that meeting taking place just two weeks before Bafana’s first Russia 2018 World Cup qualifier in Burkina Faso on October 8, it seems unlikely Safa will change coaches so close to a crucial campaign.
Some reports — quoting high-ranking sources — had claimed that Mashaba would not survive this weekend.
Poor performances where Mashaba admitted beforehand to not having researched his opposition
Safa communications head Dominic Chimhavi said this weekend’s technical committee meeting never had the purpose of discussing the coach’s future.
“Safa has nine standing committees — including technical, finance, women’s — which always meet two weeks before the four NEC meetings in a year,” Chimhavi said.
“The NEC meeting on September 24 is the third one this year. So even if Shakes had won 19-0 against Mauritania this technical committee meeting would have taken place.
“What they were doing this week was they reviewed the Olympic Games. Men’s coach Owen Da Gama and women’s coach Vera Pauw gave their reports.
“Shakes was here to report on the Afcon. But these were just generic meetings — there was nothing earthshattering.”
Mashaba’s future has been under furious speculation since Bafana ended their Gabon 2017 qualifying campaign with a whimper with their unimpressive 1-1 dead-rubber draw against Mauritania in Nelspruit on Friday, September 2.
South Africa finished third in Group M on seven points, behind Cameroon on 12 and Mauritania on eight. Gambia were in last place on two points.
Their opening two results — in poor performances where Mashaba admitted beforehand to not having researched his opposition — were the main reason Bafana failed to qualify. SA started with a 0-0 draw in Durban against Gambia, currently ranked 163rd in the world, then were shocked 3-1 away by then 114th-ranked Mauritania.