SAFA to name new Bafana Bafana coach as election race gathers pace

The South African Football Association (SAFA) is due to announce Bafana Bafana’s new head coach on Saturday, 8 August, as preparations for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers gather urgency and the organisation’s presidential election campaign intensifies.

South Africa have been without a permanent coach since Hugo Broos’ five-year tenure ended on 31 July. Broos led Bafana Bafana to a historic World Cup knockout-stage run, leaving supporters with high expectations for whoever succeeds him.

The incoming coach will be expected to target victory at the 2027 AFCON, with qualifying scheduled to begin in fewer than 60 days. South Africa’s first campaign is expected to be a relatively comfortable one against co-hosts Kenya, Guinea and Eritrea, with the opening matches set for 21 September.

Pitso Mosimane remains the leading name linked with the position. Reports suggesting that French coach Herve Renard was also being considered were dismissed on Wednesday after it emerged that he had returned to the Ivory Coast hot seat.

While the coaching announcement is the immediate priority, SAFA’s presidential contest is also moving into a decisive phase ahead of next month’s elective congress.

On Wednesday, SAFA said it had submitted the nominations for several positions to its independent Governance Committee. The files were handed over by chief executive Lydia Monyepao to committee members Victor Mogajane, the chairman, Tumi Dlamini, Abel Ramolotja, Shakespeare Hadebe and Anzel Laubscher at SAFA House, in the presence of media representatives.

The committee will examine any issues relating to the candidates and establish whether each nominee satisfies the requirements set out in SAFA’s statutes. The documents concern candidates nominated for a range of positions within the association.

“The aim of this press conference was to hand over all the files with all the nominations that we received on July 29, 2026, which was the deadline for the submission of nominations for various positions within the SAFA executive committee,” Monyepao was quoted as saying in a statement published on the association’s website.

The SAFA Elective Congress will take place on 12 September 2026. Mogajane said the committee had almost four weeks to assess the submissions before its planned report on 28 August.

“The SAFA Elective Congress is on September 12, 2026, and we have almost four weeks to work on these files before you. Our submission will probably be around 28 August 2026, and so we will hit the ground running in that regard. We really appreciate that we have been entrusted with this responsibility once more in 2026,” he said.

The main presidential battle is between incumbent Danny Jordaan and Sandile Zungu, the chairman of AmaZulu. The election is scheduled for 12 September, meaning SAFA is balancing the appointment of a new national-team coach with preparations for a leadership contest that will shape the association’s next phase.