Shakes Mashaba walked into Orlando Stadium’s auditorium clutching the Nelson Mandela Challenge trophy, upside down, like a weapon he can use to fend off trouble after Bafana Bafana’s 1-0 win over Egypt. The mentor walked out of the venue, almost 15 minutes later, confident as he heads into a weekend that could be a defining moment for his tenure.
“There is a saying that says, and I use it most of the times, 'it’s only rocks and sticks that will break my bones, not words'…I am moving on and I am going forward,” Mashaba said.
Mashaba will use the trophy – which he has won for three consecutive years, from 2014-2016 – and the way Bafana qualified for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) to fend off unemployment when he meets the Safa technical committee on Saturday. The Bafana coach went into the match against the Egyptians with the axe looming large over his head after failing to qualify for the 2017 Afcon. Safa president Danny Jordaan slammed their performance in the 1-1 draw with Mauritania on Friday. Jordaan hinted that Mashaba’s tenure could be over soon when he said that what he saw at Mbombela Stadium shouldn’t be the start of a journey but the end of it.
“I think I expressed our disappointment (with that statement),” Jordaan said. “There isn’t anyone who would disagree with me on that. We must speak the truth. I can’t go out there and tell the people that we are playing wonderful football (when we aren't). That would be dishonest. That was my honest view.”
The technical committee will come up with an honest view of the way forward for the senior national team on Saturday after they have read Mashaba and his technical team’s report on their failed Afcon qualifying campaign.
“We will see what that report says,” Jordaan said. “We are confident though that this team can qualify for the World Cup in Russia. We have shown already that we can play against the best on this African continent... We have the players, the problem is our inconsistency. One day we are among the best in Africa and the next day, we wonder why are we in a position where we shouldn’t be. Great teams are consistent.”
While Mashaba can use the Nelson Mandela Challenge to defend himself with, Safa can slap him with it as one of the problems with this team. Bafana bring their A-game in meaningless matches and friendlies but choke in important fixtures. They beat Senegal last year to win this cup right after they lost 3-1 to Mauritania. That’s where the wheels of the car that would have taken them to Gabon started to fall off. Mashaba describes that loss as a moment that “nearly took us to the graveyard”.
Mauritania eventually took Mashaba and his technical team to the grave where they wait to learn their fate this weekend. They will go to that meeting, which Mashaba claims he doesn’t know but Jordaan confirmed it, confident after the team rose from the dead to beat seven-time African champions, Egypt, in a friendly. But the 66-year-old coach, if he is to lead the side forward, has to address their inconsistency and their knack of performing better in friendlies than in games with meaning.
“We need to sit together as one and look at what could be the cause of that,” Mashaba said.
Independent Media