SA football needs visionary & development focused leadership - Zizi Kodwa

He was speaking to SABC Sport after his visit to the home of the late Bafana Bafana head coach and the only mentor to have led the team to an AFCON title in 1996, Clive Barker. During this time, SAFA was led by the late Stix Morewa and Kodwa has decried the current state of the game and calls for better leadership.

"Like all South Africans and many South Africans as a minister of sports, I'm not happy about the quality and the standard of football in 2023 compared to 1996. At that time you had a leadership with a vision subsequent leadership, Morewa and others," he said.

"They had a vision about the development of football. At the moment, one of the things that must be done immediately, is we need a leadership that is focused and has got a vision of football development in the country."

During the era of the 1996 AFCON champions, Bafana achieved its highest ranking of 16th in the world and number one on the continent. In remembering Barker, Kodwa says the local football community must do some serious soul searching and ask themselves tough questions about the current football leadership.

"There must be a way in which we celebrate him. If you look at the evolution of football in 1996 and now, there are certain things we must do to improve and also the quality and standard of our football. There are certain things that we need to do if we want to have a Bafana Bafana that is the same as 1996," the minister explained.

Kodwa says it is a shame that the country can celebrate having a top goal scorer who has only scored 12 goals in the league, referring to Cape Town City’s Khanyisa Mayo, who finished the season tied on 12 goals with Mamelodi Sundowns and Namibian international striker Peter Shalulile.

"For example, in 2023 you have the highest goal scorer of the season with 12 goals, there's something wrong. Where do you select your national team players? If only we can celebrate 12 goals yet across in Europe a top goal scorer is 50 goals. One of the things we must do is to take young players, take them to Europe to academies so that we build them so we can have a better Bafana like the one Clive coached."