For local football supporters, the most indelible memory of South Africa’s six encounters with Congo Brazzaville is from August 16 nine years ago. On a mild Saturday afternoon, Bafana Bafana’s lone striker, Phil Masinga, ensured the national team’s first ever qualification for the World Cup in time for the 1998 tournament in France.
On that day, South Africans were united in their unbridled joy that the country, after many years of cultural isolation from the rest of the world, had finally arrived on the international footballing stage.
During that same period in 1997, something else was happening to their opponents in this weekend’s African Cup of Nations qualifier. Just before South Africa’s day of joy, a civil war that lasted for five years and left more than 10 000 dead broke out and tore the Republic of Congo apart.
Enduring memories from the late nineties of Congo Brazzaville, as the country is also known to differentiate it from the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), are of destruction and doom. But the young Congolese side that takes on Bafana Bafana at FNB stadium on Saturday represents the dream of the country’s President, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, to change the international profile of his nation.
There will always be question marks about how Sassou-Nguesso won the election in 2002 after his seizure of power in 1997, with the aid of Angola, from his political rival, Pascal Lissouba.
Like the international community that marvels at how he has managed to bring peace and stability to his country, football administrators and pundits are in awe of his attempts to rebuild the ”Red Devils” using the state’s power and resources.
Although Congo Brazzaville lack recent pedigree in the continental championships, having for decades failed to qualify for tournaments at youth or senior level, they won the Nations Cup in Cameroon in 1972 when they beat Mali in the final.
Sassou-Nguesso, whose political endorsement as a leader is underscored by his election to the chair of the African Union is probably motivated by the thought that his country once laid its hands on this trophy. More immediately he is acutely aware of the power of sport to unify people from diverse cultural and racial groups and he is keen to use football to help heal the divisions caused by the civil war.
In trying to redeem the ”Red Devils” his government is not only bankrolling the salary of the coach, Frenchman Noel Tosi, but it has also, according to reports in that country, helped secure his appointment.
Despite these grand ambitions, pundits regard the team as not only poor travellers but also still lacking the necessary depth to compete at the higher level. ”They are a middle-of-the-road side. If you want to compare, they are, maybe, a bit better than Malawi,” said a television commentator.
This match ought to be a canter for Bafana Bafana. The South Africans have won four and drawn one of their previous meetings, while the sole loss can be discounted as it took place in the intimidating atmosphere of a Pointe Noire stadium where soldiers pointed guns at the visiting players.
But predictions about the South African team are increasingly becoming the territory of psychics and sangomas. It is becoming impossible to foretell which Bafana Bafana will pitch up on the day.
This time it is a toss-up between the team that was eliminated in the first round of this year’s continental showpiece in Egypt and continues to grind out results against minnows such as Namibia, or an invigorated one eager to impress a new coach.
Reports coming from the Bafana camp are not encouraging. Apparently coach Pitso Mosimane has not endeared himself to his colleagues. He is accused of disregarding their input and takes unilateral decisions. As a result they are said to be holding back because they feel that their input into the team is undermined.
And the team has once again been plagued by player problems. Benni McCarthy, who was singled out in the technical report of former coach Ted Dumitru as being a destructive character in camp during the African Nations Cup earlier this year, has again refused to honour his call-up, telling the South African Football Association that he has decided to call it a day.
This has left South Africa very thin up front. The diminutive and ageing Siyabonga Nomvete has been roped in to replace McCarthy.
While South Africa should not attempt to gauge their standards and strength against Congo Brazzaville, the match should be seen not only as part of a work in progress but as a serious endeavour to start the process of rebuilding the national team.
Whatever the merits of new coach Alberto Carlos Parreira not taking up his job immediately, Safa should use his presence here for this game to ask him to come up with a comprehensive plan for the reorganisation of Bafana Bafana.
Unless, of course, he is still on an extended vacation at the expense of the national association.