29th July 2014 Still talking sports it seems that the long period of speculation regarding the replacement for South Africa side Bafana Bafana is finally over. Ephraim ‘Shakes’ Mashaba has been named coach and will succeed coach Gordon Igesund.
Until his appointment, Shakes Mashaba was coach of the Under 20 and 22 team and will continue to coach the Under-20s until after the African Youth Championship qualifying tie with Cameroon. After that, he will prepare the South African team for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in the first week of September, starting with games against Sudan and Nigeria.
Shakes Mashaba has quite an interesting record it seems, he has a record of victory, having qualified Bafana Bafana for the Africa Cup of Nations in 2004. However, he also has a record of playing to his own beat and refusing to play political games.
Whether or not that will work in his favour this time remains to be seen. One thing though, he has been given a little breathing space to do his job as reports reveal that the South African Football Association is looking for long term improvement rather than a quick fix for the team. As a result, the focus is not on next year’s African Cup of Nations tournament in Morocco but the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
We look forward to seeing how this all pans out and wish Shakes Mashaba the very best as he begins the not so easy task of turning the South African team around.