The South African Football Association (SAFA) have confirmed Vela Khumalo will lead the national team for the 2025 Cosafa Cup.
The U17 national team coach, Khumalo was due to work with U20 head coach Raymond Mdaka, who has been delcared unavailable for the showpiece.
Reneilwe Letsholonyane has now stepped in as his assistant alongside Molefi Ntseki – who oversaw qualification for the African Nation Championship, as the Technical Advisor.
Khumalo recently won the DStv Diski Challenge with Chiefs and helped the U17s qualify for the U17 FIFA World Cup set to take place in Qatar.
“Unfortunately, coach Raymond is not around because he is attending the FIFA draw and workshop for the Under-20 national teams in Chile. So, we felt that we must give him a break because he was in Egypt at the U20 Africa Cup of Nations (SA won the tournament and are the African champions) only a few days ago and after that he went to Chile to the workshop,” SAFA Technical Committee Chairman Jack Maluleke said.
“Letsholonyane will be the assistant coach in COSAFA and will also be assistant in CHAN. The COSAFA squad has players who will be considered for CHAN in August, and also includes players that were recommended by coach Hugo Broos.
“These are players that were selected in the Bafana Bafana squad but did not make the final list announced yesterday. But the coach (Broos) wanted them to play so that he can also see how they perform in an international tournament.”
