{"id":1652,"date":"2026-05-31T11:44:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goalmzansi.com\/?p=1652"},"modified":"2026-05-31T11:44:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:44:55","slug":"sports-minister-we-look-like-fools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goalmzansi.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/31\/sports-minister-we-look-like-fools\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Minister – \u201cWe Look Like Fools!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie described SAFA\u2019s travel and visa debacle as embarrassing and grossly unfair to Bafana Bafana players and coaching staff.<\/p>\n

The senior national team’s departure for the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals in Mexico on Sunday has been postponed because several players have not yet received visas.<\/p>\n

McKenzie demanded a full report from SAFA and insisted that action must be taken against those responsible for the mess and expressed strong displeasure, stating that the incident makes South Africa look foolish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis SAFA travel and visa debacle is embarrassing and grossly unfair towards the players and coaching staff,” Mckenzie wrote on X<\/a> (formerly Twitter).<\/p>\n

\u201cI have informed SAFA that I need a report and action must be taken against those responsible for this mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are being made to look like fools.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Africa will face Jamaica in a final warm-up friendly on 5 June in Pachuca, Mexico, as coach Hugo Broos uses the match to finalise his starting lineup.<\/p>\n

Bafana will then open the 2026 World Cup in Group A against co-hosts Mexico on 11 June, followed by Czechia on 18 June and South Korea on 25 June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie described SAFA\u2019s travel and visa debacle as embarrassing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSports Minister - \u201cWe Look Like Fools!\u201d - GoalMzansi.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"South Africa's Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie described SAFA\u2019s travel and visa debacle as embarrassing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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