SAFA set for wider gains from Mosimane’s permanent Bafana Bafana staff

South African Football Association technical director Molefi Ntseki believes the appointment of Musi Matlaba and Kabelo Rangoaga as permanent members of Pitso Mosimane’s Bafana Bafana staff will strengthen the organisation’s entire technical department.

Matlaba will lead the analysis department, while Rangoaga will take charge of strength and conditioning. Ntseki says their full-time roles will create closer links between the national team, its players and their clubs, while also helping SAFA develop its own staff.

The appointments formed a key part of negotiations between SAFA and Mosimane, which continued for more than three weeks after the former coach was approved by the SAFA National Executive Committee (NEC) to succeed Hugo Broos as Bafana Bafana head coach.

Ntseki said Matlaba’s expertise would be valuable beyond the senior national team and could help raise standards across the organisation.

“I think we need to understand that the level where we left off yesterday might not be the level where we want to leave it in the next four years. So, bringing in this permanent staff will help us to have an analysis department of which somebody will be heading that analysis department like Musi, who has got so much experience,” Ntseki said.

“It will also help in training our people in terms of the analysis part of it and also when you at Kabelo Rangaoga, KB has been a fitness trainer for many, many years and he was part of Bafana Bafana for many, many years until he he joined coach Pitso on a full time basis.

“They have travelled the world and I think he has also empowered himself, he has capacitated both Musi and coach KB because now they’ve got coaching badges which is a plus to their actual academic qualification.”

Matlaba’s appointment represents the first time SAFA will have a permanent head of analysis. Rangoaga will likewise become the association’s first permanent head of strength and conditioning.

Rangoaga is already familiar with Bafana Bafana, having worked with the national side under three different coaches. His previous roles came during the tenures of Ephraim “Shakes’ Mashaba, Stuart Baxter and Ntseki, before he joined Mosimane on a full-time basis.

The new structure is intended to improve the way the national team monitors players while they are with their clubs. The conditioning department will maintain records on each player and use that information to determine appropriate workloads during national-team camps.

“We will also be having the conditioning department, so that they will connect with the players and the clubs wherever all our players are playing. So, when they come into camp they already have the records and they know what type of load has to be put on certain individual players within the team,” he added.

The staff will also provide clubs with feedback once each camp has ended, covering both performance analysis and physical conditioning.

“After the camp they will be able to give reports to the clubs, whether from an analysis point of view or from the conditioning point of view.

“So, I think I’m very, very happy and I must say thanks to the current leadership, the president and also the CEO for having allowed coach Pitso to come in with this permanent staff of which we are going to benefit more having them on a full time basis.”

The changes come as Mosimane begins his work as the successor to Broos, with SAFA aiming to use the experience of his backroom team to improve its technical operations over the next four years.

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