CAF complicit in South African football suffering continental gamesmanship, often off-field:
South African football teams have long endured a litany of unsavoury tactics across the African continent, from hostile environments and dubious refereeing to blatant time-wasting, crowd intimidation and administrative sabotage. Clubs such as Betway Premiership champions Orlando Pirates and Confederation of African Football (CAF) champions Mamelodi Sundowns, not forgetting the national team, Bafana Bafana, frequently emerge as victims of systemic gamesmanship.
The question looms large: should the CAF intervene decisively, or must South African sides descend into the same muddy waters to survive?
Consider the 2013 CAF Champions League encounter between Orlando Pirates and TP Mazembe in Lubumbashi. Pirates faced a cauldron of hostility. Reports detailed controversial penalty decisions favouring the home side and a red card for captain Lucky Lekgwathi after a 50/50 challenge. Even South African cameras were ejected from the stadium. Mazembe’s tactics included delaying kick-offs and leveraging a fortress atmosphere that bordered on intimidation. Pirates advanced despite the 1-0 defeat in the away leg but the experience left scars.
The pattern persists. In the 2026 CAF Champions League final against Morocco’s AS FAR, Mamelodi Sundowns secured a 1-0 first-leg win at Loftus Versfeld via Aubrey Modiba’s free kick. Yet preparation for the return leg in Rabat descended into chaos. Sundowns’ departure to Morocco was delayed for unexplained reasons when their charter flight was denied a landing permit by Moroccan authorities despite prior application.
The team spent hours stranded aboard the plane at OR Tambo International Airport before returning to their hotel, losing valuable recovery and training time. Many viewed this as deliberate mind games by AS FAR, especially after Sundowns had assisted the Moroccans with landing arrangements for the first leg in South Africa. Such administrative hurdles exemplify how off-field tactics unsettle better-prepared opponents.
Bafana Bafana have faced similar issues in qualifiers against sides such as Congo, with questionable officiating, time-wasting and hostile receptions disrupting rhythm. South African teams, often perceived as better resourced and more professional, are targeted with non-footballing levellers.
These incidents reveal a deeper malaise in African football governance. CAF has issued statements on fair play, yet enforcement lags. Referees often show home-team bias, while hosts manipulate conditions through infrastructure disparities and bureaucracy. South Africa’s economic edge in the PSL breeds resentment, punishing success with extra obstacles.
CAF must intervene. Stronger measures are non-negotiable: independent referee panels for key matches, mandatory neutral venues in contentious ties, harsh penalties for orchestrated delays or fan violence and transparent VAR protocols with oversight. CAF President Patrice Motsepe’s leadership has injected investment but credibility demands addressing these inequities. African football cannot flourish if excellence is undermined.
Yet, despite the relentless gamesmanship, Sundowns triumphed. They held their nerve in a dramatic 1-1 draw in Rabat, securing a 2-1 aggregate victory to claim the 2026 CAF Champions League title — their second continental crown.
This triumph in the face of adversity underscores the resilience of South African football and proves that quality can overcome dirty tricks when discipline prevails.
Perpetual victimhood, however, solves nothing. South African clubs should avoid outright dirty play such as match-fixing or violence. However, they must adapt, invest in sports psychologists for hostile environments, apply diplomatic pressure via the South African Football Association and PSL for security and scheduling guarantees and prepare tactically. This might mean faster substitutions, proactive complaints and data-driven exposure of bias. Strategic resilience beats unethical retaliation.
Football should reward skill, not survival of the shrewdest. South African teams offer professionalism and infrastructure that uplift the continent. Allowing gamesmanship to thrive diminishes all of that.
CAF owes African football’s integrity a level playing field. If not, South African sides have every right to fight fire with calculated, rules-based fire. Excellence must prevail. Only then can the beautiful game truly shine across Africa.
Lelo Mzaca is an award-winning multitalented journalist, copywriter and presenter of The Big Breakfast Show on Radio 2000, with an overwhelming passion for sport, lifestyle, music, arts and culture.
Bafana Bafana: A squad built for more than just participation:
As South Africa prepares for its return to the FIFA World Cup in 2026, excitement is building around Bafana Bafana, especially after the final 26-player squad was announced at the Union Buildings. The tournament runs from 11 June to 19 July 2026 across the United States, Canada and Mexico. In Group A, South Africa face co-hosts Mexico on 11 June at Mexico City Stadium (Estadio Azteca) in Mexico City, Czechia on 18 June at Atlanta Stadium (Mercedes-Benz Stadium) in Atlanta and South Korea on 24 June at Estadio BBVA in Monterrey. Yet this squad enters the tournament with genuine belief.
The current Bafana squad stands out as one of the most impressive in recent memory. Its strength draws heavily from the domestic powerhouse clubs. Mamelodi Sundowns’ triumph as Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League winners injects continental pedigree and tactical discipline into the national setup. Meanwhile, Orlando Pirates’ domestic treble, in which they secured the Betway Premiership, MTN8 and Carling Knockout, demonstrates depth, resilience and a winning mentality. With significant representation from both clubs — eight players each in the squad — Bafana will benefit from players accustomed to high-pressure matches, coordinated play and success at the highest levels available to them.
This domestic foundation provides a solid platform. Veterans such as captain Ronwen Williams and Themba Zwane offer leadership and experience, while emerging talents such as Relebohile “Rele / Captain-Yama-2000” Mofokeng and Mbekezeli “TLB” Mbokazi bring dynamism. The blend of local and overseas-based professionals adds technical quality and tactical versatility that previous generations sometimes lacked.
In a recent conversation, one of Bafana’s standout performers at the 2010 World Cup, Steven “Schillo” Pienaar, shared his strong conviction. The former Everton and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder expressed full confidence that this squad will progress beyond the group stages. “They have better quality players than we did in 2010,” Pienaar told me.
His words carry weight. The 2010 team captured the nation’s imagination but exited in the group stage despite the home advantage. Pienaar believes the current crop possesses superior technical ability, athleticism and depth.
FIFA rankings provide context for the challenge ahead. South Africa sits at approximately 60th in the world. Mexico, as hosts and a consistent CONCACAF power, rank 15th. South Korea, with their organised style and experience, rank 25th. At 41st, the Czech Republic brings European competitiveness. On paper, Bafana face an uphill battle. However, rankings do not always tell the full story in tournament football. The expanded 48-team format offers more opportunities for surprises and Bafana’s recent qualifying journey and domestic form suggest they can be competitive.
My analysis of the squad identifies strengths in goalkeeper stability, midfield control and attacking transitions. Defensively, the unit looks organised, benefiting from the structures at Sundowns and Pirates. The key will be converting chances and maintaining concentration against technically gifted opponents such as South Korea and the physically imposing Czech side. Mexico’s home support and conditions in Mexico City will test resilience, while the Atlanta and Monterrey venues present their own unique challenges.
Many South Africans, especially die-hard Kaizer Chiefs fans, were shocked that Chiefs goalkeeper and captain Brandon Petersen, along with other Chiefs players, were overlooked. This caused an uproar and further fuelled perceptions that national team coach Hugo Broos is biased against the Naturena side. Notably, uncapped defender Bradley Cross is the only Chiefs player selected in this squad, providing balance from the left-back position.
Despite this, Broos has moulded a team that plays with purpose. While not favourites, Bafana no longer travel as mere participants. The mixture of continental success, domestic dominance and a core of players hitting their prime creates genuine optimism.
I remain cautiously optimistic. This tournament represents a chance for redemption and growth since 2010. Like millions of South Africans, I hope Bafana defies expectations. We want to be pleasantly surprised by their progress — perhaps even seeing them advance far beyond the knockout stages and return home to a nation deeply proud of their efforts.
The foundation is there: strong club form, player quality endorsed by legends such as Pienaar and national hunger.
Will they bring back a medal, in any colour? I’d jog from Cape to Cairo naked with joy if they did. If they play with heart and cohesion across those crucial June fixtures, Bafana could deliver moments that unite and inspire the rainbow nation once more.
The 2026 World Cup offers Bafana Bafana a platform to rewrite narratives. The squad looks ready and must always remember that South Africa stands behind them, dreaming of glory never seen before.
Lelo Mzaca is an award-winning multitalented journalist, copywriter and presenter of The Big Breakfast Show on Radio 2000, with an overwhelming passion for sport, lifestyle, music, arts and culture.
Climate models failing to reflect inequality and Global South realities, study warns:
Scientists are calling for a radical rethink of the climate models used to shape global environmental policy, warning that many of today’s dominant scenarios are too rooted in the very economic and political systems that created the climate crisis.
In a new paper, researchers argue that widely used climate and biodiversity models focus too heavily on technological fixes while paying too little attention to inequality, power and the perspectives of the Global South and Indigenous communities.
The paper, published in the journal One Earth, found that many existing global scenarios are built on assumptions that economies, governance systems and social norms will remain largely unchanged, even as countries attempt to rapidly cut emissions and halt the loss of nature.
“Right now, many of our global scenarios are effectively asking how to fix the future without really changing the present,” said Laura Pereira, the lead author of the study and a commissioner with the Earth Commission. She is one of 23 commissioners on the Earth Commission, four of whom are from Africa.
Convened by Future Earth, the world’s largest network of sustainability researchers, the commission brings together an international team of natural and social scientists to identify the planet’s critical thresholds, to ensure there is clean air and water, biodiversity and a stable climate in which all life can thrive.
“If we want pathways that work, we need tools that can explore different economic models, different power structures and different relationships between people and nature, not just different technologies,” she said.
The researchers argue that this approach is too narrow for a world facing multiple interconnected crises at once, including climate change, the collapse of biodiversity and widening inequality.
Climate scenarios and models play a major role in shaping international policy. Their outputs feed into global scientific assessments and negotiations under bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, helping governments decide how to respond to environmental threats.
But the study argues that many models focus on incremental adjustments rather than deeper structural transformation. Key questions are often left unasked: who benefits from climate policies, who bears the costs and whose voices are included in imagining the future.
The paper also highlights Africa’s limited representation in the modelling systems that underpin global climate decision-making. Scientists often rely on integrated assessment models (IAMs), which combine climate, economic and social data to project future scenarios. However, Africa remains the only region without its own IAM.
According to the researchers, this limits the ability of climate models to fully capture African realities, including poverty, inequality, development pressures and local environmental challenges.
To address this, the authors propose a Global South-led “scenarios secretariat” that would help shape future climate pathways and research priorities.
The study also calls for a new generation of “integrated transformative scenarios” that combine climate, biodiversity and equity goals and are co-developed with Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
Rather than treating Indigenous groups only as vulnerable populations, the researchers argue that local and Indigenous knowledge systems should help shape future sustainability pathways.
“We find there’s a real need to move beyond business-as-usual modelling,” said Albert Norström, the commission’s science director, “and start co-creating futures that reflect the diversity of societies, knowledge and values around the world.”
The paper argues that to support sustainability policy and decision-making effectively, research needs to showcase clear options that allow the world’s societies to achieve not only the 1.5°C target but also the internationally agreed biodiversity targets while achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
“This is no easy task but it is among the most pressing requirements of our time. This challenge underscores an urgent need to formulate and adopt diverse, alternative narratives of transformative change.”
Imagining fair and sustainable futures has become increasingly urgent as influential technology billionaires promote what the researchers describe as narrow and often dystopian visions of the future.
“There is growing visibility of wildly unreasonable scenarios put forward by the world’s ‘tech-bro billionaires’: either the techno-optimism of colonising space by Elon Musk or the environmental antichrist narratives of Peter Thiel.”
Instead, the researchers argue for alternative visions grounded in principles such as “living in harmony with nature” and “leaving no one behind”.
“Alternative scenarios that are embedded with the aspirations of ‘living in harmony with nature’ or ‘leaving no one behind’ must be developed to counter these dystopian futures and inspire public mobilisation and policy action,” the paper states.
The scientists also push for “alternative economic thinking”, including post-growth models and approaches focused on wellbeing, equity and sustainability rather than endless economic expansion.
The researchers argue that current climate scenarios often assume economic growth and existing power structures will continue largely unchanged, limiting the ability of policymakers and scientists to imagine more equitable futures.
Some initiatives are already moving in this direction, including justice-focused modelling projects and nature-centred scenarios that integrate environmental sustainability with social equity.
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