Is Shakes Mashaba good enough for Bafana’s future?
Ephraim Shakes Mashaba, current Bafana Bafana coach who replaced Gordon Igesund when he was given an opportunity to lead the team for the second time has been trending on the news lately.
Mashaba was once praised for his impressive record in youth development, South Africans were pleased and impressed with his work and believed he is the right man to bring back Bafana’s dignity.
Recently they have been some negative comments about him and his work:
“Herman Mashaba you are bringing hope to our people although the same cannot be said about your ‘brother’ Shakes Mashaba- he is hopeless” says Wilson on twitter.
Another negative tweep came from Maano Shammah who tweeted: “Is Komphela your brother.”
Bernedict tweeted “problem with Shakes Mashaba is trying to prove fans wrong by selecting players who do not play at their teams.”
In the past few weeks, report said a lost against Egypt could cost Mashaba his job as he also failed to help the nation qualify for the African Cup of Nations 2017. After all these allegations, Mashaba said he is not aware of the pressure that he is under, saying he knows nothing about his jobs being on the line.
“Criticism is something that is always there. You are being criticized even if you are eating, people will tell you eat too much. So we’ve accepted that, we’ve learned to live with that” says Mashaba.
In 1997 Mashaba led South Africa under 20 to the African youth championship finals and under 20 world cup. In 2000 his under 23 team took part in Sydney Olympics and then he was appointed as the Bafana coach for the first time in July 2002 and became the first man to win Casafa Cup.
In 2004 Mashaba took over as Black Leopards manager who he helped survived relegation in 2003/2004 season. In 2012 to 2014, Mashaba led the Youth development football and was also an under 20 coach where he won Cosafa youth championship in Kenya.
The question still stands; Is Shakes Mashaba the right man to lead Bafana Bafana to Russia 2018?
