Mosimane names Williams, Zwane and Chaine as Bafana Bafana captains

Pitso Mosimane has named Ronwen Williams, Themba Zwane and Sipho Chaine as his Bafana Bafana captains, rejecting the idea that the team should have only one permanent skipper.

The trio was included in Mosimane’s final squad for the upcoming 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Guinea and Eritrea in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Williams was the team’s captain under the previous coach, with other senior players deputising when he was unavailable. Mosimane, however, says leadership should not be determined by age and believes young players must also be given the opportunity to develop in the role.

He pointed to France captain Kylian Mbappe as an example of a younger leader and said he could select a different captain for individual matches.

“I believe in leadership in many ways,” Mosimane told iDiski Times when discussing his approach to the captaincy.

“So we won’t have one captain. We have a few captains, and I will choose sometimes a captain of the day because if Mbappe is a captain, I think we can have also a young captain. Captain doesn’t have to be a player because he’s 38, 35, okay.

“Themba Zwane is one of my captains, by the way, right. So we need young captains. We need young boys to lead, to learn how to be a captain, right? So one captain, I don’t believe in that because if you are injured, then you’re not there.”

Mosimane also argued that a team cannot rely on a single leader when that player is injured or unavailable, particularly if the captain is expected to be involved in every match.

“And also you know the captain must always be playing, right? So if you stay with one captain now, you don’t have, you can’t call the other one, and there’s a lot of players who have good leadership,” he said.

The coach confirmed that Chaine would join Williams and Zwane among the recognised leaders, while Williams would retain his place in the leadership group.

“And for your information Chaine is going to be one of the captains, same as Ronwen he will still remain my captain. Let’s go for it, let’s open this thing,” Mosimane added.