Rulani Mokwena Shares Lessons From Pitso Mosimane That South Africa Coach Ignored at AFCON 2025

South Africa coach Hugo Broos has been facing backlash over his team selection and tactics after Bafana Bafana were eliminated from the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations at the Round of 16.

Bafana Bafana headed to AFCON 2025 with hopes of doing better than their third place of AFCON 2023 but found themselves packing their bags early after Cameroon beat them 2-1 in the knockout round.

That has seen Broos blamed over his decision-making and among them is the accusation that he overlooked certain players who could have been decisive.

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Former Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena is among those who think Broos did not select his best players for the tournament.

“I believe in the national team, our best players must be available for such competitions and I don’t think we had all our best players in the best form at AFCON,” Mokwena said on Sports Night Amplified with Andile Ncube.

“And then I don’t think the performance of the team was a true reflection of what we are capable of doing and how we are capable of representing ourselves at AFCON.

“When we went to the previous AFCON, we went there without expectation and without a lot of pressure but when people expect you to do well, then you need to have all your weapons and I don’t think in this competition we were prepared for it,” added Mokwena, who is now coach of MC Alger of Algeria.

One of the key issues that has been cited under Broos’ reign is his stubbornness when it comes to key issues and that was seen with his refusal to select Wydad AC forward Thembinkosi Lorch despite being in good form, something Mokwena feels the veteran coach would have learned from one of Pitso Mosimane’s philosophies.

“One of the greatest lessons that coach Pitso [Mosimane] taught me in a football match and if you really need to succeed as a coach, there are certain times when you have to put emotions aside and make sure that you have your best available players on the pitch,” said the former Wydad coach.

“The success of the national team and happiness of the country and millions of people is more important than certain aspects and you need your best players, sometimes you have to overlook certain aspects to make sure that the team succeeds.”

Another of those is Broos’ refusal to include veteran midfielder Themba Zwane in the squad after he had just returned from an injury. Mokwena wonders why the playmaker could not have been included when Morocco had captain Achraf Hakimi in a similar situation and he has now led them to the final.

“It was the same thing with Morocco. They did this with Hakimi, he has a lot of issues happening off the pitch, well documented. He had an injury with PSG but they were able to say we need our captain, our best player in the tournament and they were able to move in this direction,” he said.