South African Football Association (SAFA) president Danny Jordaan congratulated Banyana Banyana after they advanced to the 2022 Women's Africa Cup of Nations final on the same day the world celebrated Mandela Day.
Linda Motlhalo netted a last-gasp stoppage time penalty against Zambia that earned Banyana a 1-0 victory and their sixth final at the prestigious tournament.
South Africa will come up against host nation Morocco on Saturday (23 July) at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium.
Jordaan praised Banyana for their "massive effort" and highlighted that they did it on a special day.
"Banyana Banyana achieved this feat on Mandela Day and marked it by clinching a place in the final. We send our congratulations to the team after this massive effort," said Jordaan, who attended Monday's semi-final.
South Africa remain unbeaten in the tournament, winning all their matches against Nigeria (2-1), Burundi (3-1), Botswana (1-0), Tunisia (1-0) and the Copper Queens.
Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis also admits her charges were again not at their best but got the job done.
"I thought in the first half we wanted to play quicker, we wanted to rotate the ball quicker, and we wanted a lot of movement from our two attacking midfielders, but it did not happen, and through that, we struggled to play a bit," said the 59-year-old.
"In the second half, we made a couple of changes. We knew that we were going to bring Hildah (Magaia) on. She only trained with us for one day, but she gave us 45 minutes, and that gave us a little bit more balance. We had one or two chances, especially where Hildah hit it straight to the goalkeeper where she could have played it square."
Ellis added: "I must take my hat off to Zambia. They gave as good as we gave them. We
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