{"id":35899,"date":"2026-05-31T14:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T12:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=35899"},"modified":"2026-05-31T14:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T12:35:14","slug":"sa-minister-slams-safa-over-bafana-bafana-world-cup-fiasco","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-minister-slams-safa-over-bafana-bafana-world-cup-fiasco\/","title":{"rendered":"SA Minister slams SAFA over Bafana Bafana World Cup fiasco"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div>South Africa\u2019s (SA) Sports Minister Gayton Mckenzie has strongly criticised the delayed departure of Bafana Bafana for the FIFA World Cup 2026, due to an administrative blunder.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>In a post on X, McKenzie says the SA Football Association (SAFA) travel and visa debacle is embarrassing and grossly unfair towards the players and coaching staff.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>He also requests a detailed report from SAFA and demands that action be taken against those responsible.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Bafana were supposed to travel to Mexico on Sunday morning but several players have not received their visas yet. An administrative bungle in qualifying also almost derailed the team\u2019s World Cup campaign.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">In a statement issued earlier, the South African Football Association says it is working around the clock to ensure Bafana Bafana travel to Mexico for the 2026 FIFA World Cup as soon as possible.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>An Emergency Committee meeting has been convened and a further update will be communicated to the nation after its conclusion.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014SABC\u2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21509,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-35899","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"He also requests a detailed report from SAFA and demands that action be taken against those responsible.","published_date":"","news_description":"He also requests a detailed report from SAFA and demands that action be taken against those responsible.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35900,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35899\/revisions\/35900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}