The South African Football Association (Safa) has appointed Molefi Ntseki as Bafana Bafana’s interm coach with immediate effect.

Following the Safa technical committee meeting earlier today, the committee felt that Ntseki was the right man to lead the senior national team, having been part of the Bafana set-up for a while now after Stuart Baxter’s resignation on Friday.

The U17 head coach is an entrenched student of Safa’s Vision 2022, having had involvement with all the national teams as well over the past few years – from the U20 men, Banyana Banyana as well as the U17 women’s teams.

Regarding a permanent replacement for Baxter’s post, the committee has resolved to appoint a task team, of which the names will be released during the course of the week, to consider a new head coach for Bafana Bafana.

Safa released the following statement on the appointment of Ntseki:

‘Following the Safa Technical Committee meeting earlier today (Saturday, 3 August 2019), the South African Football Association (Safa) is pleased to follow through on the recommendation from the Technical Committee, and has appointed Molefi Ntseki as Interim Coach of the Men’s Senior National Team, Bafana Bafana, with immediate effect.

‘Given that Ntseki has been with Bafana Bafana for quite a while now, it was felt that in the interest of continuity, and given the upcoming fixtures in September, Ntseki is best placed to follow through with the foundation that has been laid by Coach Baxter, who resigned on Friday, 2 August 2019.

‘Ntseki, the current U17 Head Coach, is an entrenched student of Safa’s Vision 2022, having had involvement with all the national teams as well over the past few years, from the U20 men as well as Banyana Banyana and U17 women’s teams.

‘Regarding a permanent replacement, the Safa Technical Committee has resolved to appoint a task team, whose names will be released during the course of the week, to consider a new head coach for Bafana Bafana.

‘While it’s our intention to use our best endeavours to resolve the Bafana Bafana head coach matter by the end of the month, it is to be understood that with these matters, it involves complex negotiations with the potential replacement, and therefore it is not always possible to resolve such matters in a short space of time.’