Kaizer Chiefs Diski Challenge coach Vela Khumalo has been named the Bafana Bafana head coach for the upcoming 2025 COSAFA Cup tournament. Notably, his squad features a strong presence of Amakhosi players.
The COSAFA competition will start from 4-15 June 2025 in Bloemfontein. Khumalo is not a stranger to the national team duty as he also serves as the Amajimbos mentor.
He announced his Bafana COSAFA squad on Friday afternoon, with five Chiefs players included in the squad. The five players are Bruce Bvuma, Aden McCarthy, Thabo Cele, Mduduzi Shabalala, and Wandile Duba.
Khumalo recently guided the SA Under-17 Men’s National Team to the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar.
SAFA also confirmed the Chiefs DStv Diski Challenge coach will be assisted by Reneilwe Letsholonyane during the tournament. Meanwhile, Molefi Ntseki will serve as technical advisor to the Bafana COSAFA squad. Ntseki also helped the SA Men’s National Team qualify for the CHAN tournament finals in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda in August 2025.
Khumalo’s selection includes several players from Hugo Broos’s preliminary squad who didn’t make the cut for the June 2025 international friendly games against Tanzania and Mozambique. He also considered players likely to feature in the Bafana CHAN team.
VELA KHUMALO ON WHY RAYMOND MDAKA NOT PART OF THE BAFANA COSAFA TECHNICAL TEAM
Khumalo revealed that Amajita coach Raymond Mdaka was not included in the Bafana COSAFA squad technical team because he is in Chile for the FIFA World Cup U-20 draw that took place in the early hours of Friday, and has a workshop for the U-20 National Team.
“Unfortunately, coach Raymond is not around because he is attending the FIFA draw and workshop for the Under-20 national teams in Chile. So, we felt that we must give him a break because he was in Egypt at the U20 Africa Cup of Nations of which they won, and after that he went to Chile to the workshop,” said Khumalo.
“Letsholonyane will be the assistant coach in COSAFA and will also be the assistant in CHAN. The COSAFA squad has players who will be considered for CHAN in August, and also includes players who were recommended by coach Hugo Broos.
“These are players that were selected in the Bafana Bafana squad but did not make the final list announced yesterday. But the coach [Hugo Broos] wanted them to play so that he could also see how they perform in an international tournament.”
BAFANA BAFANA COSAFA FULL SQUAD
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