Shakes Mashaba will have a lot of explaining to do this weekend after Bafana Bafana failed to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), when the Safa technical meeting is held this weekend.
Cameroon qualified as winners of Group M on Friday while Bafana Bafana were looking to sneak into Gabon as one of the two best runners up.
But that won’t happen, even if they win their last game against Mauritania to finish with nine points because there are already three second-placed nations on 10 points with one round remaining.
Safa chief executive, Dennis Mumble, promised that they won’t be pulling any punches in search of answers from Mashaba, starting with the coach’s admission that poor planning hurt the team which resulted in them picking up a paltry three points in their first four games.
After that admission, with better planning and preparation, Bafana Bafana dismantled Gambia 4-0 in Bakau.
This was after they struggled to break down the Scorpions in Durban when they didn’t have any sting in what was their first competitive match after a two-year ban for falsifying player’s age.
“He needs to explain to us, this weekend in the technical committee meeting, what he meant when he said that we were not properly prepared and then we take a lesson from there so that we make sure that we don’t repeat it again,” Mumble said.
He said this yesterday at Safa House during the draw of the ABC Motsepe League play-offs that will run from June 13-19 in Bloemfontein.
Mumble further squashed rumours that the organisation was looking at Gavin Hunt as the next Bafana Bafana coach. Even though Mumble and Safa president Danny Jordan didn’t say in so many words, it seems the organisation will stick with Mashaba for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers that start a month after the last Afcon qualifier against Mauritania in September.
The draw for the World Cup qualifiers will be held in Cairo on June 24.
“We will have a vigorous exchange with the technical team, about why we didn’t qualify for the Afcon,” Mumble said.
“As we said before, the two objectives were to qualify for the Afcon and the 2018 World Cup. We didn’t succeed in the one objective.
“So we have to engage. We are going to be tough. We are not going to hold back any punches. But we also must be fair about how we approach it.
“We must do it in such a way that it helps all of us to move forward.”
Kamohelo Mokotjo was a casualty of this qualifying campaign, resigning - until certain circumstances change - in response to not getting enough game time under Mashaba.
After that resignation, it came out that a number of players were not happy with the coach’s tactics and planning.
To avoid such an occurrence happening in the future, Mumble has introduced an open door policy for players to come straight to him to air their grievances.
“I haven’t met with him (Mokotjo) but the coach said that he has reached out to the player, that matter can be put to rest,” Mumble said.
“As far as I know there isn’t a continuing problem there.
“We haven’t made any pronouncement on Mokotjo (regarding his future with Bafana Bafana).
“I promised the team that we (as management) are looking at ways to improve our communication with them.
“We will make sure that when a team comes into camp we greet that team, iron out whatever issues that may be there and then hand over a complete team to the coach.” - The Star