Can Bafana Bafana finally exorcise the Mbombela qualification demon?

South Africa’s chances of qualifying for the 2026 Fifa World Cup are hanging by a thread and the choice of venue for this penultimate game may be detrimental to that goal given Bafana Bafana’s history at the Nelspruit venue.

Hugo Broos’ men face Rwanda – on Tuesday – in their last Group C qualifying match in the Mpumalanga province hoping they make it to next year’s spectacle co-hosted by USA, Mexico and Canada.

At this juncture, Bafana need to win at all cost against the Rwandans with the hope that Group C leaders Benin lose to Nigeria in the group’s other match.

Bafana are second placed with 15 points while Benin are atop of the standings with 17 points. Benin’s match is a tricky one as third-placed Super Eagles of Nigeria fancy a second place finish as a win will see them finish second place with 17 points.

Essentially, a win for Nigeria against Benin will deter Bafana’s chances of qualifying as that would mean both Benin and Nigeria will be on 17 points.

Bafana find themselves in this predicament because Fifa docked them three points for fielding a suspended Teboho Mokoena against Lesotho.

Under Pitso Mosimane, during the 2012 AFCON qualifiers, Bafana players celebrated in a ‘dance of shame’ at Mbombela Stadium after mistakenly believing they had qualified for the tournament.

Bafana drew their final qualifier against Sierra Leone and thought it was enough to take them through as they had a plus-two goal difference compared to Niger’s minus-two in Group G. only to be told after those celebrations that they did not make it.

They will be hoping to dance in pride this time around and the Mbombela demon would have been conquered.