South Africa National Team: Bafana Bafana Soccer Fixtures, Squad, Log and Records

The South Africa national team is Bafana Bafana, the senior men's soccer side run by the South African Football Association (SAFA) and back in international competition since 7 July 1992. They were champions of Africa in 1996, have twice taken Africa Cup of Nations bronze (in 2000 and 2023), and qualified for the 2026 World Cup in October 2025 with a 3-0 win over Rwanda. Think of what follows as a match programme that never goes out of date: the fixtures, results, squad and log above update themselves after every match, and the words below explain how to read them.

Mzansi supplies most of the audience, but Bafana are watched closely in Lagos, Accra, Nairobi and Kampala too, because the same qualifying groups and the same tournaments shape everybody's year. Kick-off times are therefore given in WAT, EAT, SAST and GMT, and the rivalry notes are written with Super Eagles, Black Stars, Harambee Stars and Uganda Cranes supporters in mind. If you follow more than one country, the full list of national teams is the place to go next.

Who Are Bafana Bafana, and Where Does the Name Come From?

Bafana Bafana means, roughly, 'the boys', and the name came from the stands before it came from any committee. Supporters chanted it at Kings Park in Durban in July 1992, when South Africa beat Cameroon 1-0 in the first match after the return to international soccer. The side had played its first international as far back as 9 July 1906, against Argentina on a tour of South America, but FIFA suspended South Africa in 1961 over apartheid and the country was formally expelled in 1976. A new multiracial SAFA was admitted in 1991, and the modern team dates from there.

SAFA runs the team from top to bottom, which means it appoints the coach and announces every squad. It also runs Banyana Banyana, the women's national team, which is a separate side with its own fixtures, so check which of the two a result belongs to before you quote it. The nickname explains the team better than any badge does, because it was given by a crowd and it has been sung by crowds, vuvuzelas included, ever since.

Bafana Bafana Fixtures: What Time Is Kick-Off Where You Live?

Every fixture of Bafana Bafana is listed in the fixtures module above, with the opponent, the venue, the competition and a plain line on what is at stake. Kick-off is shown on four clocks at once, because the five countries sit across four time zones. South Africa keeps SAST, Nigeria is one hour behind on WAT, Kenya and Uganda are one hour ahead on EAT, and Ghana is two hours behind on GMT. For example, an 18:00 SAST start in Johannesburg is 17:00 WAT in Lagos, 19:00 EAT in Nairobi and Kampala, and 16:00 GMT in Accra.

Where can you watch Bafana from your own country? The broadcaster for each of the five markets is listed beside every fixture, and it is worth checking each time, because the rights can differ from one competition to the next. In South Africa the habit is pay-TV or free-to-air on the big screen at home, while in West and East Africa most supporters follow on a mobile. Once the final whistle goes, the match moves from the fixtures list to the results list without anyone needing to rewrite a word.

Who Is in the South Africa Soccer Squad?

The South Africa soccer squad changes with every call-up, so the names live in the squad module, set out position by position with each player's club, caps and a one-line role. The captain and the goalkeepers are the first names to look for, since they tell you the most about how settled the starting XI is. What stays true from one camp to the next is where the players come from. Premiership clubs such as Mamelodi Sundowns, the CAF Champions League winners in 2016, supply a large share of the national side, which is why the Premiership (the PSL) can feel like one long trial for Bafana.

The players based abroad complete the picture, and their clubs are shown in the same column so you can see at a glance who has flown in for the international window. The home-based core is the strength of this team, because players who share a dressing room every week arrive already knowing each other's runs. A call-up from overseas brings a different kind of experience, and the balance between the two groups is the first thing to look for when a squad is announced.

Who Coaches Bafana Bafana, and How Do They Play?

The head coach is appointed by SAFA, and the name shown with the squad module is the one the association has confirmed. That is the place to check, since a coach can change between tournaments while the rest of what is written here stays the same. The style, though, tends to outlast any one appointment, and it is recognisable from the Premiership. South African soccer has long prized short passing on the ground and a little showmanship in tight spaces, and it could be argued that the best Bafana sides keep that flair while defending as a unit. When most of a starting XI plays together at club level, the understanding arrives ready made.

How Do You Read the South Africa National Soccer Team Standings?

The log module shows Bafana's position in the qualifying groups of the Africa Cup of Nations and the World Cup, and it updates at the final whistle of every group match. A win is worth three points and a draw is worth one, so the points column is the one to read first, with goals scored and conceded beside it. Qualifying groups are short, which means there are very few matches in which to repair a slip. Where two sides finish level, the competition's own rules decide the order, and those rules are not always the same for AFCON qualifiers as they are for World Cup qualifiers.

How is a qualifying group actually won? In my opinion, it is won at home, by taking the points on offer in front of your own supporters and then refusing to lose on the road. That is why the venue column matters as much as the opponent when you scan the fixtures, and why a group can look settled on the log while one long trip north or west still has the power to reopen it.

What Have Bafana Bafana Won?

South Africa hosted and won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1996, four years after returning to the international game, and it remains the only continental title. Bronze followed in 2000 and again in 2023, when DR Congo were beaten on penalties in the third-place match. Closer to home, the COSAFA Cup has been won five times, in 2002, 2007, 2008, 2016 and 2021, which is a fair measure of how often South Africa have set the pace in the southern region.

The World Cup story began in France in 1998, and the first win came four years later against Slovenia at the 2002 tournament. In 2010 the country hosted the whole event, the first World Cup played on African soil, with the final at Soccer City. The hosts went out in the group stage (the first host nation to do so), but the tournament is still spoken of warmly across the continent. Qualification for a fourth World Cup was sealed in October 2025 with a 3-0 win over Rwanda. At the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, Bafana finished second in Group B and went out 2-1 to Cameroon in the Round of 16, the same opponents who had been in Durban for the return in 1992.

Who Holds the Bafana Bafana Records?

Aaron Mokoena holds the men's caps record with 107 appearances, and Benni McCarthy is the all-time top scorer with 31 international goals. The records module above lists the rest, including the biggest wins, and it adjusts by itself whenever a cap or a goal is added. In my opinion, the caps record is the harder of the two to chase, since it asks for many years of fitness and selection, whereas a striker in form can close a goals gap far more quickly.

Where Do Bafana Bafana Play, and How Do You Get Tickets?

The biggest home is Soccer City (FNB Stadium) in Soweto, the largest ground in Africa, which holds about 94,700 and staged the 2010 World Cup final. Matches are also taken to other cities, with Kings Park in Durban being where it all restarted in 1992, so the venue is confirmed fixture by fixture and shown in the fixtures module. A full Soccer City with the vuvuzelas going is, perhaps, the loudest argument for seeing the national side in person at least once.

Tickets are sold through the channels SAFA announces for each home match, and those announcements carry the outlets and the prices. The practical advice is to wait for the official announcement and buy only through the outlets it names. Supporters travelling from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya or Uganda should confirm the venue and the SAST kick-off before booking anything, as a fixture in Soweto and a fixture in another province are very different journeys.

Why Do Bafana Matter in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia?

Bafana's rivalries run north along the continent, and each one reads differently depending on where you are sitting. For Nigerian readers, South Africa against the Super Eagles is a meeting of two of the continent's biggest soccer audiences, and the result is argued over in Lagos and Johannesburg long after the final whistle. Ghana's Black Stars bring a different edge, since both nations have World Cup history and tend to measure a generation against the other. The head-to-head module gives the full record for each pairing, so the bragging rights can be checked before they are claimed.

Kenya's Harambee Stars and the Uganda Cranes sit in the same CAF structure as Bafana, so any of them can be drawn together in a qualifying campaign, and those fixtures are a chance to test East African progress against a side with a continental title. Zambia are regular COSAFA Cup opponents, and that tournament has made them a familiar contest for southern African supporters. The East African meetings deserve close attention, because Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are the joint hosts of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations and a result against Bafana is the kind that gets remembered.

Is It the South Africa Soccer Team or the South Africa Football Team?

It is the same team under either name. In South Africa the everyday word is soccer, so supporters at home search for the South Africa national soccer team, while readers in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda are more likely to type 'South Africa football team', 'South Africa national football team' or 'South Africa football squad'. The association carries the second word in its own title, which shows how comfortably the two sit together. Whichever wording brought you here, start with the fixtures module above, read the kick-off on your own clock, and then work down to the squad and the log.