The hope of 2010 is returning for South Africa. Their fans are all Bafana Bafana again at last

As part of our Language of Soccer World Cup series, The Athletic is speaking to supporters of all 48 nations competing at the 2026 edition to capture their unique football culture, distilled into a single phrase. 

---

Bafana Kaofela – We are all Bafana Bafana

When South Africa played their second-to-last warm-up game for the 2026 World Cup on home soil, more than 55,000 people turned up.

Bafana Bafana would lose 2-1 to Panama in Cape Town but Mbekezeli Mbokazi’s equaliser gave an indication of how the country reacts to a spectacular moment on a football pitch.

The central defender’s 30-yard strike zoomed into the top corner and, during the celebrations at the corner flag, his team-mates toppled over him. Meanwhile, the noise that followed seemed to cascade from the terraces.

Despite the defeat, supporter Emilio Hartogh says the scenes show that South Africans are believing in their team again. “And love them,” he insists. “The country is obsessed by sports and the people who represent them. But we need something tangible to get behind. When that happens we say, ‘Bafana kaofela,’ which means, ‘We are all Bafana Bafana (the boys, the boys)’.”

Not so long ago, it did not feel this way.

“There was a friendly match in Durban ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in 2023 and only a few hundred people were there,” says Norika Naidoo, who was one of the attendees. “The game was played in the middle of a storm, but it wasn’t just the torrential rain that put supporters off.”

South Africa had failed to reach three of the six AFCONs since hosting the World Cup in 2010, which marked their last appearance in that tournament as well. “A degree of apathy had set in across the country as far as the national soccer team was concerned,” says Naidoo, who points towards goalkeeper and captain Ronwen Williams pleading for fans to attend matches as evidence of this. “Hosting the World Cup was a wonderful experience in terms of the vibes it created, but it was followed by many years of underachievement in terms of results on the pitch.”

Hartogh and Naidoo agree that the mood slowly started to turn in 2019 when Bafana Bafana (a nickname that translates from Zulu) surprised Mohamed Salah’s Egypt by knocking the hosts out of AFCON. “My parents had gone to bed that night and I woke them up celebrating,” remembers Naidoo.

Though South Africa lost in the quarter-finals to Nigeria, the team were getting better. The appointment of AFCON-winning Belgian coach Hugo Broos in 2021 seemed to increase the possibilities. His arrival after success with Cameroon coincided with a boom in interest in the domestic game.

“Though we are a successful rugby and cricket nation, the sport that has the most interest is soccer,” Hartogh insists. “Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates are juggernauts, with support across the country. The last Soweto derby sold out and, in 2022, more people in South Africa watched the same fixture on television than the World Cup final between Argentina and France.”

While TV deals have improved exposure, clubs’ financial reach has widened, helping standards in the South African Premiership. “This has translated to the national team,” says Hartogh. “Fans subsequently want to see how their players do.”

At the 2023 AFCON in the Ivory Coast, Bafana Bafana came third. “The narrative before that tournament was about the team being underachievers,” says Naidoo. “Most South Africans thought we’d lose in the group stages, but as the tournament progressed and we kept winning, people became more interested.

“The 2023 AFCON was a lever for change. The style of the football and the players’ emotional investment matched the fans’ ambitions. Before that, there was a lingering sense they were doing us all a favour.”

---

South Africa were banned from competing at events run by world football’s governing body, FIFA, and CAF (the Confederation of African Football) until 1994, when apartheid, the legally enforced system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination, was finally ended in the country.

Two years later, having qualified as hosts of AFCON, Bafana Bafana won the thing at the first attempt.

Naidoo collects football jerseys and she says the white, green and gold strip from that period is the one she feels most connected to.

“When you looked at those players, you could see yourself. It represented a majority of South Africa and you did not see this in other sports. There was tangible opportunity in soccer and that really made a difference to the way people felt about the game.”

But the success of the country’s rugby union team at the 1995 World Cup tends to be talked about more globally because it came sooner after the end of apartheid.

“The achievements of the soccer team in 1996 does not get the same credit sadly,” acknowledges Brian van Veen, a supporter who attended matches during that tournament. “Rugby has always been the cornerstone of white South African sport, whereas soccer was more popular amongst black communities, who had long been suppressed. Winning AFCON in 1996 therefore was a much more significant moment for non-white people in South Africa.”

Over the years that followed, Bafana Bafana pushed on, coming second at the 1998 AFCON before qualifying for the World Cup for the first time. The performance in France that year was reasonably good. Despite a loss in their opening game to the hosts and eventual winners, there were draws with Denmark and Saudi Arabia.

Third in their group, South Africa went out. “It left a disappointing taste,” says Van Veen, who does not merely point towards the results. Fourteen of the 23-man squad were based abroad. One of them, Pierre Issa, had not grown up in South Africa, only joining the camp for the first time a month before the tournament. “The dynamic of the squad changed very quickly. South Africans prefer to see domestic players in the team,” Van Veen adds.

By comparison, 24 of the 26 players who travelled to the Ivory Coast in 2024 were based in South Africa. “It’s much easier to identify with this team,” says Hartogh. “In the past, we have had coaches who have used players from abroad and there has been no cohesion. The current batch, they play more like a club side.”

Coach Broos has since argued it would be beneficial for South African footballers to broaden their horizons. Naidoo believes that what was achieved in the Ivory Coast proves it does not necessarily matter where a player is based.

“South Africa is on the other side of the world to Europe and, for a lot of South Africans, it is hard leaving the country,” he says. “If a player needs to be with their family, let them stay in South Africa. I think we have a lot more to gain through spirit and understanding than we might have through the individual development. What suits one person does not work for another.”

This will be South Africa’s fourth World Cup. They have not made it out of the groups on each of their appearances, but there is a feeling the record might change this time around.

“For a whole generation of people in South Africa, their World Cup memory is 2010, not only because we were host but also because we haven’t qualified since,” says Hartogh. “For a long time, we slipped into being a team that did not even compete in the slightest. But now, the air feels different, similar to 2010 when the possibilities seemed so great that reports suggested crime across the country had dropped significantly. This shows you how important soccer is in South Africa.”

The Language of Soccer series is sponsored by Google.

The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Sponsors have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.