Minister Muthambi praises Bafana outstanding victory

8 September 2014

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi praised Bafana Bafana as heroes for lifting the mood of South Africans following their away 3-nil win against Sudan in their 2015 Morocco Orange Africa Cup of Nations qualifier matched played in Khartoum, Sudan on Friday night.

“What a good start by newly appointed Bafana Bafana head coach, Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba! As government, we want to congratulate Bafana Bafana for this outstanding victory.

“With this victory, you made all of us proud, under the new head coach and the new generation of players, we’ve turn a new page, glory moments are back,” she said.
Bafana produced a clinical second half performance, which saw substitute Sibusiso Vilakazi scoring the first goal for Bafana Bafana on the 55th minute and doubled the lead five minutes later.

The third goal came through striker, Bongani Ndulula in the 78th minute. However, Muthambi said while the goal scorers deserve to be praised, she said credit should go to Mashaba who only had one training session with his new team ahead of the match.

“As a nation, we must give credit where it is due; Mashaba only had one training session with the team before the match, but he was able to clinch an impressive win away from home, so we need to salute him for that,” she said.

The new-look South African national team returned home on Saturday to start preparing for another tough encounter against reigning African champions Nigeria on Wednesday (10 September 2014), in Cape Town.

“We are urging all South Africans to rally behind the national team when they play against Nigeria on Wednesday because we want our players to beat their opponents, so we want people to go to the stadium in their numbers to wave the South African flag with great sense of patriotism cheering the boys to clinch another great victory,” she said.

With a win against Sudan, South Africa is now leading Group A with three points and three goals. The other two national teams in Group A are Congo and Nigeria.

Issued by Government Communications (GCIS) on behalf of Ministry of Communications 08 September 2014