The South African national U23 men’s team has confirmed its place in the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament scheduled from November 8-22 in Egypt this year.

The SA U23’s was held to a goalless draw by Zimbabwe at the Babourfields in Bulawayo on Tuesday to advance to the AFCON on 5-0 aggregate following a convincing win at Orlando Stadium last Friday.

This is the third consecutive qualification to the AFCON U23 for Baby Bafana in the last eight years and they will be hoping to make it back to back Olympic qualification by finishing in the top three in Egypt.

SA head coach David Notoane reflects on this victory.


Zimbabwe head coach Tonderai Ndiraya admitted that it was going going to be a tall order for his side to stage a comeback against a string and well-drilled SA side.


Ndiraya says the Zimbabwean Football Association (ZIFA) head honchos must shoulder the blame for this failure to qualify.

For SA, this is the continuation of the Vision 2022 project with the majority of players in this team has been to the FIFA U17 World Cup and two FIFA U20 World Cups in the last five years.

Notoane’s team will go into the draw against the hosts Egypt, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Ivory Coast and neighbours Zambia.

It’s a tough field and the former Santos striker is happy that he’s taking a team to Egypt that has been together for some time.

–  Report by Velile Mnyandu