Teboho Mokoena saga: Bafana team manager not off the hook yet

Bafana Bafana team manager Vincent Tseka’s fate will reportedly be decided by a vote following his blunder that nearly cost South Africa a place at the 2026 World Cup.

South Africa were docked three points by FIFA for fielding midfielder Teboho Mokoena in a World Cup qualifier against Lesotho in March 2025 when he was supposed to be suspended and the sanctions arrived in September just before their final two matches.

It pegged Bafana Bafana back but they still qualified after a favour from Nigeria, who beat Benin, while they defeated Rwanda to seal their place in next year’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

That did not stop calls for heads to roll over the anomaly, putting Tseka under the spotlight but SAFA boss Danny Jordaan annoyed fans when he said the case is closed since Bafana Bafana already qualified for the World Cup.

SAFA makes surprise decision over Mokoena saga

However, according to Sunday World, Tseka and Bafana Bafana head of delegation David Molwantwa are not off the hook yet but their fate will be decided by a vote among the SAFA National Executive Committee (NEC).

“Safa NEC member and chairperson of the legal and constitutional affairs committee Poobie Govindasamy finalised his report titled ‘investigation report concerning the fielding of Teboho Mokoena in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier against Lesotho on 21 March 2025’ and recommended that the matter be finalised by round robin resolution-a vote,” the outlet reports.

However, that recommendation has not been welcomed by a section of the SAFA NEC members with one of them telling Sunday World that it is an “infringement on the SAFA statutes because employee issues are handled by the CEO, and not by the NEC.”

SAFA believes it handled the matter well, calling it as an “administrative oversight, exacerbated by the passage of time” with 16 months passing between Mokoena’s booking and the Lesotho match.

What has Tseka said about the blunder?

In his defence, Tseka said he missed the player’s booking against Zimbabwe as he had left the dugout to get ice for the team but accepted that he should have done his due diligence.

“However, he [Tseka] concedes that according to the records, the player was not supposed to play in the match against Lesotho on 21 March 2025 in Polokwane. He deeply regrets any inconvenience… this glaring omission of the bookings of the player caused Safa and the country, and he undertakes to ensure that this mistake does not happen again,” the SAFA report says as quoted by Sunday World.

SAFA CEO Lydia Monyepao says the anomaly was as a result of human error, saying the team manager gets overwhelmed sometimes and that they had hoped to get confirmation from FIFA about player suspensions but it did not happen.

“Safa relied too heavily on external confirmation from Fifa, rather than maintaining proactive internal tracking of disciplinary records,” she said as per the report.

Bafana team manager defended over the mistake

“The team manager, Mr Vincent Tseka is currently responsible for all men’s national teams. When camps overlap or run concurrently, his workload increases significantly, creating operational pressure that contributes to administrative oversights.

“The incident occurred in the absence of any deliberate misconduct or intent to gain an unfair advantage. It was the result of communication gaps and procedural inconsistencies.

“Safa operated under the reasonable assumption, based on CAF practice, that Fifa would issue a suspension notice. The team played a high volume of matches across various competitions during the period between the player’s first caution and his second. This made manual tracking of disciplinary records more complex.”

It remains to be seen if the round robin voting will take place as a number of SAFA NEC members have said they will not participate since a resolution was already passed in a meeting held in Mbombela in October to punish those responsible for the blunder.