Mohau Nkota vows to keep fighting for his Bafana place

It has been a difficult 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) for attacker Mohau Nkota but the Saudi-based attacker has vowed to come back stronger if opportunity presents itself in the next match.

Opportunity cannot be better than an Afcon last-16 clash against defending champions Ivory Coast or Cameroon at the Al Medina Stadium in Rabat on Sunday.

Coach Hugo Broos’ South Africans, the runners-up in Group B, meet the second-placed side in Group F, which completes its fixtures on Wednesday night when Ivory Coast face Gabon and Cameroon meet Mozambique (both 9pm SA time).

Bafana progressed to the knockout stage with a nervy 3-2 win over Zimbabwe in Marrakesh on Monday where Nkota came on as second-half late substitute to replace Tshepang Moremi.

This was his second appearance at the tournament as he started in the opening 2-1 win over Angola but was replaced at half time. The Al-Ettifaq FC winger did not get a chance in the 1-0 defeat to Egypt.

Nkota, who was one of the key performers in South Africa’s 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Rwanda in September and October, appears to have been overtaken by Orlando Pirates winger Moremi in Broos’ pecking order.

Moremi substituted Nkota in the opening match against Angola and went on to start against Egypt and Zimbabwe, where he scored a crucial opening goal, and is likely to keep his place in the last 16.

Asked about his loss of form, Nkota said he is dealing with some issues. “It won’t take time to get the Mohau we know, it is just a matter time,” he said.

“There were some issues that we had to sort out and I am sure we will have the Mohau Nkota we want in the next game. This is not an easy tournament — for me it is just to man up, work hard and help the team.”

With Ivory Coast or Cameroon the most likely opponents in the next round — though Mozambique can still stage a Group F coup on Wednesday night — and then hosts Morocco in the quarterfinals if Bafana go through, the road to the final is not an easy one for South Africa.

“It is very important for us to recover and train well this week and hopefully there will be no injuries before the game,” Nkota said.

He said the hard-fought win against Zimbabwe came against opponents who made the clash hard for Bafana.

“Playing against Zimbabwe is always difficult. Even the last time we played against them in the World Cup qualifier [a 0-0 draw in Durban in October] was not easy.

“In this one, we had to raise our hands and make sure we won. We knew Zimbabwe were going to come at us and what we needed was to be there and not be scared.

“We are happy that we are going to the next round and what is in front of us now is to prepare well for the coming game.”

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