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Safa fire Ntseki as Bafana Bafana head coach after failed Afcon qualifying campaign
The national governing football body will have to find a replacement for the lanky tactician ahead of the World Cup qualifiers
South African Football Association has announced the dismissal of Molefi Ntseki as Bafana Bafana head coach.
The writing was on the wall for the 51-year-old since Bafana suffered a surprise 2-0 defeat to Sudan's Falcons of Jediane in their final 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Sunday.
The result saw South Africa fail to qualify for next year's tournament which will be hosted by Cameroon and Ntseki came under heavy scrutiny.
Safa has now confirmed it has parted ways with Ntseki, who guided Bafana to a third-place finish in Group C with the top two teams, Sudan and Ghana qualifying for the finals.
"Safa has parted ways with Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki. Further updates will be provided," a Safa statement read on Wednesday.
The Botshabelo-born tactician was appointed in August 2019 as a replacement for Stuart Baxter with the latter having resigned a few weeks after leading Bafana to the 2019 Afcon quarter-finals where they narrowly lost to Nigeria.
Having served as Bafana assistant coach under Baxter and Shakes Mashaba, Ntseki was tasked with leading South Africa to the 2022 Afcon and 2022 Fifa World Cup finals.
However, the former South Africa under-17 head coach's contract has now been terminated by Safa with Bafana set to start their World Cup qualifying campaign in May 2021.
It remains to be seen who will be brought in to take charge of the national team with Bafana expected to face Ghana, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia in their qualifying group (Group G) matches between May and October this year.
The Group G winner will book their place in the third round where 10 group winners from the second round will be drawn into five home-and-away ties.
The winners from each tie will qualify for next year's World Cup finals which will be hosted by Qatar.
The last time Bafana took part in the global competition was in 2010 as tournament hosts.
