A call was once again made for all South Africans to unite and rally around the newly reappointed Bafana Bafana coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira. This plea came from the newly elected president of SAFA, Mr Kirsten Nematandani.

Nematandani was speaking during a congratulatory dinner held in his honour at the University of Venda last Friday evening. He worked at the University of Venda as head of sports, until his election to the highest office in local soccer about two months ago.

The dismal run by the national team under Brazilian coach Joel Santana led to an uproar from many circles when football commentators had been rooting for a local coach to lead Bafana Bafana to 2010.

After the firing of Santana, there was widespread speculation that a local coach who understands the language and the type of local football would be the most appropriate person to lead the national team.

Nematandani said it was everybody’s wish to have a local person coach the national team, but time was not on their side as they only had eight months left before the world cup.

He said there was no more time for experimenting and hence they were going for the experienced Parreira. He added that the national team was following Parreira’s programme and he remained the best possible option to replace Santana in order to complete the programme.

He said people should not worry about the pay and allowance of the new coach as they were busy finalizing the details but should concentrate on what they could do to assist the coach in building the best team that would make the country proud.

“We have to be united and work together as a country in ensuring that the new coach succeeds and brings the needed results We should be worried as to what we as a nation could do to sup-port the coach,” he said.

About the negative reports that he had not been procedurally elected, the new SAFA head said that this would not detract him from the mandate of the masses and would not affect him.

The vice-chancellor and principal of the university, Prof Peter Mbati, said it was appropriate for the institution to congratulate Nematandani for his achievements.

He said he had shown leadership skills while still in the employ of the university and it came as no surprise that he had been chosen to the highest office in South African soccer. He commended him for a job well done, saying his contribution while head of sports on campus could not go unnoticed and that under his leadership they had seen sports grow to another level on campus.