Safa appoint Molefi Ntseki as Bafana Bafana interim coach

The SA Football Association (Safa) moved swiftly form Stuart Baxter’s resignation as Bafana Bafana head coach on Friday, appointing his assistant Molefi Ntseki as caretaker coach on Saturday.

A meeting of the Safa Technical Committee at Safa House in Nasrec on Saturday also resolved to appoint a task team to go about the process of seeking out Baxter’s full-time replacement.

The committee recommended South Africa’s Under-17 coach Ntseki for the interim post, which needed filling fairly hastily as Bafana have two 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers approaching in November.

A statement on the Safa website on Saturday afternoon read: “Following the Safa Technical Committee meeting earlier today, Safa is pleased to follow through on the recommendation from the Technical Committee, and has appointed Molefi Ntseki as Interim Coach of the Men’s Senior National Team, Bafana Bafana with immediate effect.

“Given that Ntseki has been with Bafana Bafana for quite a while now, it was felt that in the interest of continuity, and given the upcoming fixtures in September, Ntseki is best placed to follow through with the foundation that has been laid by Coach Baxter, who resigned on Friday, 2 August 2019.

“Ntseki, the current u17 Head Coach, is an entrenched student of Safa’s Vision 2022, having involvement with all the national teams as well over the past few years, from the u20 men as well as Banyana Banyana and u17 women teams.

“Regarding a permanent replacement, the Safa Technical Committee has resolved to appoint a task team, whose names will be released during the course of the week, to consider a new head coach for Bafana Bafana.

“While it’s our intention to use our best endeavours to resolve the Bafana Bafana head coach matter by the end of the month, it is to be understood that with these matters, it involves complex negotiations with the potential replacement, and therefore not always possible to resolve such matters in a short space of time.”

Baxter failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in his second stint with Bafana of just over two years‚ but reached the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations‚ where South Africa exited in the quarterfinals with a 2-1 defeat to Nigeria.