Former Bafana Bafana international Benson Mhlongo says the Hugo Broos-coached side is not ready for the 2024 AFCON Finals in Ivory Coast in January.
South Africa are in Group E with Tunisia, Mali, and Namibia.
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In their preparation for the tournament, Bafana have recently failed to beat minnows like Namibia and Eswatini while being held by Ivory Coast in their most recent match.
"This will keep happening until we treat the national team as a platform to perform, then we will have a direction," Mhlongo tells KickOff.
"But at the moment we are treating our national team as a platform where we develop players to compete.
"It looks like all we do we give players experience, and game time and hope they will adjust and acclimatise.
"The competition is only two months away, and currently we need somebody who is on form and performs every week in our team.
"During our days we were told the jersey is the pride of the country.
"But these days you only need to be young to get a national call-up so that you could be groomed for the 2026 AFCON.
"We are not even sure if those players we are grooming would still be in form by the time 2026 comes.
"In football, there are injuries, change of clubs, loss of form.
"These days there is no competition at all amongst players for a place in the national team, it seems the 2026 squad is already decided.
"Until we put performance first as a criterion to represent the country, we will never be ready.
"Right now, they are trying to build a squad for 2026. You can't build a national team. Only the best-performing players in your country should be there, no matter how old that player is.
"When you guarantee a youngster a place in a national team, where is his hunger going to come from?
"No wonder some of them miss flights and don't care, how can you miss a national team flight?
"As a country, we are not even ready to respect the national team. As a country, we are not ready."
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