JOHANNESBURG – There was silence in the Safa corridors on Thursday, with no word yet on the arrival of a new Bafana Bafana coach despite a press conference being held just below chief executive Dennis Mumble’s office.
It looks like another week will go by without the appointment of Shakes Mashaba’s replacement.
Owen da Gama has instead been given the responsibility to take charge of Bafana’s two friendly matches against Guinea-Bissau in Durban and Angola three days later at a venue still to be confirmed.
Coincidentally, Mashaba’s request at the start of his Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration hearing sometime last month was that his assistant, Da Gama, take over in the interim as he fights to be reinstated.
Meanwhile, his former employers are still scrambling to fill the vacant post. It looked like Carlos Queiroz would step in as successor late last week, but the man who coached Bafana between 2000 and 2002 has been unable to break away from his contract with the Iran Football Association.
Safa then reportedly attempted to lure Herve Renard, but he, too, appears to have pulled out of the race to concentrate on helping Morocco reach next year’s World Cup.
Mashaba's CCMA hearing has been adjourned to next month.