Bidvest Wits coach Gavin Hunt has hit back at claims he is in the running to replace Shakes Mashaba as the coach of the national team, Bafana Bafana.

Hunt came out firing in an interview with The Sowetan after reports suggest the Wits coach was out of the running to replace Mashaba because of his lack of ambition to win continental titles.

The former Hellenic right back suggested his current club does not have the resources to compete on both domestic and continental fronts and a lack of success in either competition would be used as an excuse to look at alternate candidates.

The 52-year-old coach steered SuperSport United to three successive league titles from 2008 but insists he has not been approached by Safa to take over as Bafana boss.

‘No-one’s approached me‚ no-one’s spoken to me – it’s all media talk. They (media) throw the names around – and some of the names baffle me. So I don’t read anything into that,’ said Hunt.

Hunt went on to stress that the national organisation had slipped up by not replacing Mashaba last July when South Africa were eliminated from Afcon 2017 qualifying with two group matches still to play.

‘The timing with that job is key. And right now they [Safa] don’t seem to know what’s going on. So my focus is here [at Wits]. And I’m saying this on the record – the timing was right when we weren’t going to qualify [for Afcon 2017] and there were two games left.

‘But it was left and now in the world market who are you going to get? Most guys around the world have got jobs. But no-one has spoken to me officially‚ now or in July. It was all just media talk. And that’s the honest truth,’ Hunt concluded.

Hunt’s strong words are likely to rule him out of contention with the hierarchy at Safa and following Roger de Sa’s appointment at Maritzburg, the search for a successor to Mashaba looks set to drag on.