Bafana Bafana mentor Pitso Mosimane has explained his decision to hand Mamelodi Sundowns winger Siyanda Ndlovu a national team call-up ahead of South Africa’s back-to-back 2027 Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON] qualifiers against Kenya.
Mosimane unveiled his final squad at the SABC studios in Auckland Park on Thursday, 5 November. Ndlovu’s inclusion came as a surprise to many, given that the player was omitted from the initial 38-man preliminary list released on October 23.
The talented winger has been in scintillating form for Masandawana since making his off-season move from Golden Arrows. Ndlovu has already featured 15 times across all competitions this season, registering three goals and three assists while picking up multiple Man of the Match awards.
Consequently, Ndlovu earned his maiden Bafana Bafana call-up. Speaking following the squad announcement, Mosimane emphasised that preliminary lists are far from final, citing past instances where unlisted players earned their place on merit.
PITSO MOSIMANE ON WHY HE SELECTED SIYANDA NDLOVU
“The most important thing is to know that we should not be slaves or be held by a preliminary squad,” said Mosimane. “You remember last time, Tshepang Moremi was not in the preliminary squad, but he played against Egypt. So, preliminary squad is a squad we name because of many, many, many reasons.”
Mosimane stressed that calling up players like Ndlovu is part of a broader strategy to build long-term depth and integrate top-performing local talent into the team’s culture early.
“First, we acknowledge—we saying we are watching you—we acknowledge what your contribution is, especially like we see you. He [Siyanda Ndlovu] won Man of the Match [awards], I think three times in a row or four times in a row. I mean, you cannot ignore that,” added Mosimane.
“We need to encourage, and we don’t call him to say, ‘Ah, you’re going to play.’ No, we’re not saying that. We’re saying you’re part of the team, we’re building a team, we’re building a pool of players, and we have a vision. So, we need to build a pool of players that sometimes you call them just to be part of us. To know what we do, so that you get that experience, so that when you come, you’re not saying, ‘Oh, what’s happening here, what’s new?'”
PITSO MOSIMANE ON CRUCIAL CAMP ENVIRONMENT EXPOSURE FOR NEW PLAYERS
The national team coach also outlined how crucial camp environment exposure is for newly introduced players, detailing the extensive analytical work required behind the scenes.
“You might not be part of the Kenya home and away games, but you have to know what we do. We do match analysis, make corrections, and watch our training sessions. We put our training sessions in the mornings of almost every day at the camp, to see what came out, I mean, amongst ourselves [the technical team],” he continued.
“So, we need to talk to the player also, and talk to ourselves. It’s a lot of work, and that’s why I would say maybe I need to double my analysts because you’ve got to check your training sessions, and we’ve got to also prepare a session that will help and enhance that. We’ve got to check what happened against Egypt.
“I don’t want to talk about Eritrea because we corrected some of the things after Eritrea, but we haven’t corrected after Egypt. When do you correct? So, we have to go back to those things, so you can see that Musi [Matlaba] needs more assistance. I was so happy that Bafana had about four analysts in the [2026 FIFA] World Cup who were working with coach Hugo Broos.”
Bafana host Kenya at the Orlando Amstel Arena in Soweto on Friday, 13 November 2026, with kick-off scheduled for 18:00 CAT.
The squad will then travel to Nairobi for the return fixture on Tuesday, 17 November 2026, which is also set to kick off at 18:00 CAT.
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