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From Masinga's magic to moments of madness: Highs and lows of Bafana's World Cup qualifiers

news24.com

The FIFA World Cup qualifiers have not been kind to Bafana Bafana. In 1998, Joe Mafela and TKZee gave the country two classical songs to celebrate Bafana's first ever qualification for the global showpiece.

The late Mafela got us chanting in excitement about us going to France. The legendary kwaito super group TKZee gave Bafana Bafana striker Benni McCarthy a chance to dazzle with the microphone like he did with the ball.

The result was Shibobo. But over the years, Bafana have made us sing the blues with failure after failure. In seven attempts to qualify for the global showpiece, Bafana have only been successful two times since readmission in 1992.

The 1998 World Cup marked the ceiling for Bafana who were African champions two years before and finished as runners-up in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) that year.

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