South
Africa's sports minister said the country's national team had matured
after qualifying to compete in the continent's most prestigious football
tournament following seven years in the wilderness. Bafana Bafana last
qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations in 2008. "You have come of age,"
said Minister Fikile Mbalula shortly before the team left for the
tournament, which wil be hosted by Equatorial Guinea. "This is a special
moment for South Africa."
"You
have restored the glory, the pride ... of the nation," he added. A year
ago, out of frustration at the team's poor performances, Mbalula
described Bafana Bafana as a "disaster" and a "useless bunch of losers".
That was after South Africa crashed out of the group stage of the 2014
African Nations Championship with a 3-1 loss to Nigeria.
However,
11 months later, South Africa beat defending continental champions
Nigeria away to qualify for this year's Cup of Nations. That victory
came despite the harrowing loss of captain and goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa,
who was shot dead at a house south of Johannesburg on October 26 in what
police billed as a robbery gone wrong.
"You
dismissed the idea that Nigeria cannot be defeated, you have debunked
that," said South African Football Association (SAFA) president Danny
Jordaan.
South
Africa are in a toughlooking Group C at the tournament along with
Algeria—the top African side in the FIFA rankings—Senegal and Ghana's
Black Stars. Very soon they will step up their preparations with a
friendly against Cameroon in the Gabonese capital Libreville, nine days
before their opening game. Coach Ephraim "Shakes" Mashaba has refused to
name a team captain following the death of Meyiwa, saying the players
would "captain each other".
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