Johannesbrug - The South African Football Association (Safa) have played down talk that Bafana Bafana head coach Ephraim Shakes Mashaba’s position came under scrutiny this week.
Mashaba’s future has come into question after two consecutive draws (2-2 and 0-0) against Cameroon last month left South Africa’s hopes of qualifying for the 2017 African Cup of Nations in tatters.
As the Group M table stands, with two rounds of fixtures to be played, Cameroon are on eight points, Mauritania on seven, South Africa three, and Gambia two. While it is still mathematically for Bafana to qualify, it is looking highly unlikely that they will end up as group winners or even as one of the two best second-placed teams from the 13 qualifying groups.
Bafana’s final two games are away to Gambia in early June, followed by a home match against Mauritania at the start of September.
Mashaba’s contract with Safa is set to run until after the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, but with the coach already likely to fail to meet his first mandate - qualification for the 2017 Nations Cup, there has been a growing speculation in the media that his tenure could be terminated.
Earlier this week, the Soccer Laduma website claimed that Safa were holding meetings with the possibility of Mashaba’s dismissal on the agenda.
However, Safa head of communications Dominic Chimhavi told Sport24 that Mashaba’s job had not been talked about, and that he still has the backing of his employers.
“Never once has anyone at Safa or any member of the executive committee move to fire the coach,” Chimhavi said.
“We had a very constructive meeting with most of the stakeholders, which included head coach Shakes Mashaba, at Safa House on Thursday.
“Part of the meeting was to give unqualified support to the coach. He has a mandate to ensure that the team qualifies for Russia 2018. We are not in the culture of chopping and changing coaches.”
Chimhavi’s final comment suggested that Safa will allow Mashaba to complete the AFCON qualifiers before looking at parting ways with him, should he as expected, fail in his mandate.
“Our qualification for AFCON 2017 is hanging by a thread. But we are not in a position to say that we have not qualified yet.”
Apart from results not going his way, Mashaba has found himself criticised for his selection policies, while his relationship with some segments of the media have also soured.
He took charge for his second spell as national team coach in 2014 and earned the country qualification to the 2015 AFCON, where they bombed out at the first stage.
Overall, Mashaba has ruled over 30 games, with 16 won. However, eight of those victories came from 10 friendly encounters, leaving him with a record of eight wins in the 20 matches that really counted.
To his credit though, Mashaba has managed to keep South Africa on track for the 2018 World Cup, thanks to a 4-1 aggregate victory over Angola which has seen Bafana through to the third and final qualifying phase, which begins in October 2016 and runs until November 2017.
African News Agency