Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki has signed a contract with the South African Football Association (Safa)‚ his agent‚ Thato Matuka‚ has confirmed.
This resolves the coach’s contract situation‚ which for various reasons – including the coach being tied up with camps for matches‚ and a change of acting CEO at Safa – had been unresolved three months after Ntseki’s appointment as Bafana coach in late August.
Matuka‚ who had met with new Safa acting CEO Gay Mokoena last Thursday‚ said the deal was finalised on Tuesday this week
“We are fine. Both parties are happy‚” said Matuka.
“We actually sealed it yesterday [Tuesday]. We had pretty much agreed on a deal on Thursday last week‚ but there was just one outstanding matter that both parties had to go back and investigate‚ consult and come back on. That has been resolved,” he announced on Wednesday
Asked if Ntseki was happy with the contract‚ Matuka said: “Yes sir.”
Ntseki was appointed Bafana head coach during a meeting of Safa’s national executive committee at Safa House on August 31.
Ntseki initially remained on his contract with the association that had seen him serve as national Under-17 coach‚ and as assistant to his predecessor Stuart Baxter.
This was partly due to the new coach being tied up overseeing a camp for a friendly against Zambia in early September that was called off by that country’s FA in response to a wave of xenophobic violence at the time in South Africa.
Ntseki oversaw a second camp when he finally got his tenure off to a winning start as Bafana beat Mali 2-1 in the Mandela Challenge in Port Elizabeth in October.
Last month Bafana began its 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign with a 2-0 defeat away to Ghana‚ and 1-0 home win against Sudan.
In the meantime, Mokoena replaced Russell Paul – who took a job as COO of the 2022 Qatar World Cup – as Safa’s acting CEO in early November.
Mokoena was not available for comment at the time of going to press.
