*Caption: Amajita striker, Khanyisa Mayo

Written by: Samkele Sokhela

Hiring and retaining South African coaches is the ‘only answer’ to South Africa’s national soccer teams’ poor results record in major international tournaments, according to a Sports Analyst.

Banyana Banyana and Bafana Bafana have been both struggling to win silverwares for decades. And, since Banyana’s Rio Olympics disappointing exit and Bafana’s failure to qualify for Africa Cup of Nations 2017, South Africans have reacted with mixed opinions.

Soccer fan, Nkululeko Nhlangulela said that if any coach is not providing positive results for the team, they need to be dismissed.

“If any coach is not doing well they must be fired. This thing of thinking that retaining a local coach would help, I disagree with it. I think if any Coach is capable of doing a good job no matter which country they are coming from, they must be given a chance,” said Nhlangulela.

However, according to Sports Analyst Bongani Yengwa, the shifting of national teams’ coaches and hiring international coaches won’t do any good in changing the country’s woes when it comes to major tournaments.

“South African problems can only be solved by South Africans. And I am not saying that, in a national team’s technical team, it must only be South Africans. We must also include foreign coaches because they might include some positive input specifically the experience and more,” said Yengwa.

He added that international coaches face difficulties when they are given a coaching task because they do not understand the whole setup of the country.

“In this country we have talented players coming from informal and formal settlements. And for instance, if you look at Vera Pauw (Banyana Banyana Coach) she is from Holland. And how could you expect a coach from a developed country to understand a player coming from Limpopo, or from the township?” questioned Yengwa.

“Last time Banyana did better was under a South African Coach Joseph Mkhonza in 2012 when they qualified for the Rios and managed to score a goal in the group stages. And this time around in 2016 under a foreign Coach we did not even score a single goal. Bafana once won AFCON and qualified for World Cup under a local coach,” he said.

Yengwa concluded by saying that South African national teams have decent history under local Coaches and believes that retaining them is the solution.

“Keeping local coaches will show its worth at the end, trust me. And for Shakes Mashaba (Bafana Bafana Coach), he needs everyone’s support, including SAFA,” concluded Yengwa.

Both Bafana Bafana Coach Shakes Ephraim Mashaba and Banyana Banyana Coach Vera Pauw have been speculated to be sacked by SAFA after failing to meet their respective given mandates.