The South African Football Association (Safa) has named former Afcon-winning coach with Cameroon, Hugo Broos, as the new head coach of Bafana Bafana.

The association made the announcement at a media conference on Wednesday afternoon, finally putting to bed weeks of speculation around the vacant role.

Broos will replace Molefi Ntseki, who was relieved of his duties following his failure to guide the national team to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) to be held in Cameroon.

The appointment comes at a vital time as Bafana’s 2022 World Cup-qualifying Group A campaign begins with a match against Zimbabwe in Harare on the weekend of 5-7 June.

The Belgium mentor is no stranger to African football as he guided Cameroon to Afcon success in Gabon in 2017 when they beat Egypt 2-1 in the final at the Stade de l’Amitié in Libreville.

A number of coaches – including Pitso Mosimane, Carlos Queiroz, Hervé Renard and Benni McCarthy – were all linked to the job but after failing to agree terms with any of those targets, Safa settled on Broos as the new coach.