South Africa's national football team, Bafana Bafana, experienced delays in leaving for the 2026 World Cup in Mexico after visa issues prevented most players and technical staff from traveling as scheduled [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The team was set to depart Johannesburg on Sunday, May 31, but the departure was postponed indefinitely due to visa processing failures [2, 3, 4, 5].
South African Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie condemned the visa delays as "embarrassing & grossly unfair towards the players & coaching staff." He demanded a report and action from the South African Football Association (SAFA), stating, "We are being made to look like fools" and "I have informed SAFA that I need a report and action must be taken against those responsible for this mess" [1, 2]. SAFA described the visa issues as an "administrative bungle" [1, 2, 6, 3, 7, 4].
The team finally departed on Monday, June 1, without assistant coach Helman Mkhalele and team head of security Mdu Mbatha, whose visas were initially denied [6, 7, 8, 9]. SAFA President Danny Jordaan noted the US Consulate General in Johannesburg refused the visas without providing reasons, making the process difficult to navigate [6].
Mkhalele and Mbatha obtained their visas on June 2 and planned to join the main team in Mexico on June 3 [10, 8]. Jordaan confirmed, "Tomorrow (Wednesday), all of them will be together" [10].
The delays caused South Africa to miss one or more days of acclimatization and training in Pachuca, Mexico, potentially affecting their World Cup preparations [6, 10, 8]. Despite these setbacks, coach Hugo Broos expressed optimism, saying, "Now we are very happy that we can go to Mexico. The past days have been a little bit stressful with all the problems we had, but those problems are behind us now and we can focus on what's coming" [6]. Broos added, "When we are at our best level, with the quality in this team, then we can make some surprises in the World Cup" [11].
South Africa qualified for their fourth World Cup and aims to advance beyond the group stage for the first time [6, 7, 9]. They finished top of their qualifying group, one point ahead of Nigeria and Benin, despite a points deduction from an overturned 2-0 victory during qualification due to fielding an ineligible player [2, 3, 4, 5].
South Africa's opening match is against co-host Mexico on June 11 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. Their Group A fixtures also include games against the Czech Republic on June 18 in Atlanta and South Korea on June 24 in Monterrey [1, 2, 6, 3, 4, 9, 5]. On June 5, South Africa is scheduled to play a warm-up friendly against Jamaica in Mexico [1, 2, 6, 8, 9].
