Mkhalele’s withdrawal opens door for Molefi Ntseki’s return to Bafana Bafana for CHAN

Maluleke spoke to SABC Sport yesterday about how they settled on Ntseki as a replacement for Bafana assistant coach Heman Mkhalele, who withdrew from coaching the team.

On Sunday, Bafana will play Egypt in a CHAN play-off qualifier at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein.

Ntseki joined the team in camp last night and will be assisted by SA U20 head coach Raymond Mdaka.

"We then agreed to sit down and check who can we assign specifically to assist and we've realised that the coach of Under20 hence we have players from Under20, coach Mdaka must be part of the team and when we checked around the last SAFA meeting, the SAFA NEC endorsed the name of Molefi Ntseki which we last interviewed specifically to head our development and academy,” Maluleke said.

“So, he's inside, he's in the system and he's more senior. Maybe if we can take him and coach Mdaka, they can make a team at least to try and give these young players a boost. We know that the players that are selected, they want also to showcase, to improve, to prove to the nation that they can still offer this football.

“So, hence we brought coach Ntseki because of his experience being part of the system for some time. So, we felt that him and Mdaka can assist these young boys."

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The game was scheduled for Friday at the same venue but was pushed back yesterday because the visitors were struggling to secure their visas.

They will only be able to leave Cairo tomorrow.

Contrary to Maluleke’s statement that Mkhalele’s withdrawal was related to the upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifiers last month, information reached SABC Sport that he withdrew after some clubs started pulling out players from the team.

"Yeah, no, you would remember that we are busy for the qualifiers, World Cup Qualifiers on the 31st of March in Polokwane and the coach felt that he needed to work hard to prepare and Mkhalelele is also part of that planning,” he added.

“So, the coach felt that Mkhalele must not travel with the team, however, he assisted to have this team. So, as SAFA we agreed that we should prioritise, that's when we agreed that Mkhalele must stay behind and arrange with the coach as requested."