South Africa’s national team boss Shakes Mashaba has come under fire recently for his failure to take the national team past the group stages at the recent African cup of nations.
Since the country and the World Cup in 2010, there has been little progress made with regard to the national team. It was confirmed once again after a poor showing at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. Despite being expected to at least reach the quarter-finals for beyond, South Africa did not even get past the group stages after falling to Equatorial Guinea.
Having been appointed as the replacement for Gordon Igesund only in August 2014, Shakes Mashaba has had a lot of questions about his ability to coach the national team.Mashaba will have a big test of his qualities when South Africa play against Nigeria and Swaziland in the friendly matches towards the end of March.Mashaba will have a great opportunity to put an end to the highly inconsistent form that the team has been showing. A victory against minnows Swaziland will not be seen as a major point, but getting success over former Africa Cup of Nations winner Nigeria will be a major boost to the confidence.
“I am Ephraim Mashaba. Those who still doubt my qualities of coaching the national team are wasting time. People are still questioning whether I am the right person to coach this team or not.Who is the right person? Who is the right person to coach this team? I am South African by nature, I deserve to be here.My colour doesn’t stop me from coaching the national team, I want people to know, it’s one section. I will deal with it with time,” said the manager, whose team’s last win came in a friendly against Zambia before the Africa Cup of Nations.