Newly appointed Bafana Bafana coach Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba has given a strong indication that he will be making a total overhaul of the playing squad when he selects his first squad later this month. Mashaba was addressing his first press conference as a Bafana coach at SAFA House today. Following a lot of Bafana failures in the last six to eight years, there have been widespread calls to build a new team and Mashaba is promising to take that direction…

With the first African Cup of Nations qualifier away to Sudan in Khartoum taking place in the first weekend of next month, Mashaba also reasons that he will still need to blend the team with some of the experienced players…

Mashaba is leaving his u20 national team post for the senior national team job and he has also assured that his full technical team for Bafana will be released soon. He says it’s important that his technical team and junior national team coaches be people who have worked extensively in youth football in the country…

Mashaba is still expected to be part of the Amajita technical team until they finish their African Youth Championship qualification process against Cameroon in the next three weeks. The last qualifier for u20 and Bafana’s first game is only six days apart but Mashaba assures that there will be smooth operation because the new Amajita coach will be a Bafana assistant as well…

When Mashaba left the Bafana job unceremoniously in 2004, some of the differences emanated from strained relations with certain overseas based players. He’s committed himself to working with all the players who are patriotic to don the national team colours…

The issue of club versus country remains another huge challenge for national team coaches in the country, especially in the last five years here locally. Mashaba was once a victim of it as well when he was coaching the national u23 team…

Before the last Bafana tour of Australasia in May, there were players who deliberately turned down national team call-ups and forced the former coach Gordon Igesund to travel with a weakened squad. Mashaba says these are some of the things that need to be addressed and calls for patriotism from the players

Following the appointment of Mashaba there have been a lot of reports in the country saying Mashaba was not the first choice for this job. Some have gone far as saying he was a cheap choice and not the perfect candidate for this job. And SAFA President Danny Jordaan has refuted all of this…

For a long time during this search for a new coach Jordaan was alleged to be preferring the return of Carlos Queiroz but today he dismissed that and went deep into explaining the process that was followed…Journalist: Velile Mbuli