An AFCON 2027 travel platform by Travel Ease
Bafana Bafana (The Boys)
1996 African champions. South Africa open qualifying against Guinea on 26 September 2026.
Road to AFCON 2027
Group D
South Africa
Current status: Qualifying
The co-host is already qualified, so only the best-placed other team qualifies. With Kenya through as co-hosts, South Africa must finish as the best of the other three.
No qualifier has been played yet — the table appears here after the first matchday.
Checked 21 September 2026 against CAF’s draw and fixture list.CAF fixtures
The number that defines South Africa
1st
attempt — South Africa won AFCON at their first finals
Hosts in 1996, they won five of six matches, scored 11 goals and conceded two on the way to the title.
Iconic moment · 1996
Final · South Africa 1996, Johannesburg
In a tournament expanded to 16 teams for the first time — and missing holders Nigeria, who withdrew — the debutant hosts reached the final and beat Tunisia 2–0. Mark Williams scored both goals, in the 72nd and 74th minutes.
2025
Zimbabwe v South Africa — AFCON 2025 highlights
Ahead three times in Marrakech, and into the last 16 through Oswin Appollis’s penalty in the final ten minutes.
Official highlights from CAF TV, embedded from YouTube. Travel Ease hosts no footage and is not a CAF partner; the video loads only when you press play.
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The team now
Forward · FC Copenhagen
Scored the only goal against South Korea at the 2026 World Cup, the win that took South Africa into the knockout rounds for the first time.
Forward · Orlando Pirates
Scored against Angola and the winning penalty against Zimbabwe at AFCON 2025, after leading South Africa’s qualifiers in assists.
Goalkeeper · Mamelodi Sundowns
Saved four penalties in the 2023 quarter-final shoot-out against Cape Verde and two more in the third-place shoot-out against DR Congo.
From the 30-man squad named on 17 September 2026 for Guinea (26 Sep) and Eritrea (30 Sep) in qualifying, and a friendly with Egypt in Cairo (4 Oct). Clubs as at that announcement.
AFCON 2027 packages
Follow the Bafana Bafana to East Africa. Each trip works from any host country, so it holds whichever group South Africa land in.
Fan5 nightsAny host country
A short trip built around a single fixture
Match ticket not included · assistance on request
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Costed for your departure city
Supporter8 nightsAny host country
Two fixtures, one trip
Match ticket not included · assistance on request
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Costed for your departure city
Supporter14 nightsAny host country
Travel with your side through the rounds
Match ticket not included · assistance on request
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Costed for your departure city
Flights, hotels and match-day transport are quoted for your departure city — airlines and hotels have not released AFCON-period rates, so we price your exact trip rather than publish a guess.
Travelling from
Routing, journey time and entry requirements depend on your departure country.
Host countries
Explore the three host nations while we wait for South Africa’s official finals journey to be determined.
Safari country and East Africa’s busiest gateway
Kenya combines the region’s most connected international airport with the Maasai Mara and the Kenyan coast, making it the natural base for supporters who want football and safari in one trip.
Plan my tripZanzibar, Serengeti and the Indian Ocean
Tanzania offers the strongest holiday extension of the three hosts — Zanzibar’s beaches and the northern safari circuit are both within easy reach of the mainland gateways.
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The source of the Nile and gorilla country
Uganda is the most compact of the three hosts, with Entebbe close to Kampala and adventure travel — rafting at Jinja, gorilla trekking in the southwest — within reach of a tournament trip.
Plan my tripTickets are issued only through CAF’s authorised official ticketing. Travel Ease is not a ticket seller — we help you follow official South Africa ticket updates and build your journey around confirmed matches.
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SAFARI3 daysMaasai Mara
Kenya’s best-known reserve, reachable by light aircraft or road from Nairobi between match days.
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CITY1 dayNairobi
The national park on the city edge, the elephant orphanage and Karen — a full day without leaving Nairobi.
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BEACH4 daysZanzibar
The classic post-tournament wind-down: white sand, warm water and Stone Town, a short hop from Dar es Salaam.
Add to my tripThe story behind the shirt
The full story, the title years, the moments, the legends and every tournament — researched from CAF and dated where it can change.
South Africa’s AFCON legacy
South Africa’s first Africa Cup of Nations ended with the trophy. As hosts in 1996, at the first finals expanded to 16 teams, Bafana Bafana opened by beating Cameroon 3–0 and closed by beating Tunisia 2–0 in the Johannesburg final with two Mark Williams goals in the 72nd and 74th minutes. Two years later they were back in the final in Burkina Faso, where Benni McCarthy — the tournament’s best player and joint top scorer with seven goals — could not stop Egypt winning 2–0.
Third place followed in 2000, and then a long wait. South Africa staged the finals again in 2013 as emergency hosts, reached the quarter-finals in Egypt in 2019 by knocking the hosts out in Cairo, and returned to the podium in Côte d’Ivoire in 2023 for the first time in 24 years. That bronze was built on Ronwen Williams: four saves in the quarter-final shoot-out against Cape Verde, two more in the third-place shoot-out against DR Congo.
Third place followed in 2000, and then a long wait. South Africa staged the finals again in 2013 as emergency hosts, reached the quarter-finals in Egypt in 2019 by knocking the hosts out in Cairo, and returned to the podium in Côte d’Ivoire in 2023 for the first time in 24 years. That bronze was built on Ronwen Williams: four saves in the quarter-final shoot-out against Cape Verde, two more in the third-place shoot-out against DR Congo.
Hugo Broos’s side reached the knockout rounds again at Morocco 2025, where Cameroon ended their run 2–1 in the last 16, and then went further than any South African team had at a World Cup: Thapelo Maseko’s goal against South Korea in June 2026 carried them into the round of 32. Broos stepped down at the end of July, and Pitso Mosimane — a three-time CAF Champions League winner as a club coach — took over on 1 September for a second spell in charge.
The road to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda is a narrow one. South Africa are in Group D with Guinea, Eritrea and co-hosts Kenya, whose place is already secured, so only the best of the other three qualifies. Mosimane’s first match is at home to Guinea on 26 September 2026, followed by Eritrea’s home fixture four days later, which SAFA says will be played in Cairo.
1 title
Champions on debut
Hosts beat Tunisia 2–0 in the Johannesburg final.
Tap a year for the story of that title.
1996
Champions on debut
Hosts beat Tunisia 2–0 in the Johannesburg final.
1998
Runners-up
Beaten 2–0 by Egypt in the final in Burkina Faso.
2000
Third place
A medal at a third successive finals.
2013
Hosts again
Emergency hosts, out in the quarter-finals.
2019
The Cairo upset
Hosts Egypt beaten 1–0 in the round of 16.
2023
Bronze
Third place on penalties against DR Congo.
2025
Round of 16
Out 2–1 to Cameroon in Rabat.
Iconic moments
2019
Round of 16 · Egypt 2019, Cairo
Egypt had 62% of the ball, but Thembinkosi Lorch’s goal five minutes from time won the tie 1–0 and sent the hosts out. It was South Africa’s first AFCON win over Egypt; Nigeria ended their run in the quarter-finals.
2024
Quarter-final · Côte d’Ivoire 2023
After 120 goalless minutes against Cape Verde, Ronwen Williams saved four penalties, the first three among them, and South Africa won the shoot-out 2–1 to reach their first semi-final in 24 years. He saved twice more in the third-place shoot-out against DR Congo, which South Africa won 6–5.
AFCON legends
1990s
Scorer of the goals that won South Africa’s only AFCON title.
Scored both goals of the 1996 final against Tunisia, in the 72nd and 74th minutes, and the only goal of the 1–0 group win over Angola at the same tournament.
1998–2000s
The standout player of South Africa’s second final.
Named best player of AFCON 1998 and finished joint top scorer with seven goals as South Africa reached the final.
1990s
Part of the defence in both of South Africa’s AFCON finals.
Started the 1996 final win over Tunisia and the 1998 final against Egypt.
2010s
Scorer of South Africa’s first AFCON winner against Egypt.
His 85th-minute goal in Cairo beat the hosts 1–0 in the 2019 round of 16.
AFCON rivalry
Egypt beat the 1996 hosts 1–0 in Johannesburg in the group stage, then won the 1998 final 2–0 in Ouagadougou with two early goals. South Africa’s answer came in the 2019 round of 16, a 1–0 win that knocked the hosts out in Cairo. At Morocco 2025 Egypt won the group meeting in Agadir 1–0.
Egypt at AFCON 2027Statistics
Finals tournaments through Côte d’Ivoire 2023. Qualifiers not included.
South Africa’s biggest opening-match win at AFCON is still the 3–0 against Cameroon that launched the 1996 title run.
South Africa have hosted AFCON twice: in 1996, when they won it, and in 2013, when they stepped in because of the conflict in Libya and reached the quarter-finals.
Beating Angola at Morocco 2025 was only the fourth time South Africa had won their opening AFCON match, after 1996, 2000 and 2004.
The 2023 bronze medal was South Africa’s first AFCON podium finish since 2000.
South Africa’s best run at a finals in North Africa is still the 2019 quarter-final in Egypt; they went out in the group stage at Tunisia 2004 and Egypt 2006.
Once, in 1996 — at their first finals, as hosts, beating Tunisia 2–0 in the final in Johannesburg. They were runners-up in 1998 and third in 2000 and 2023.
Twelve tournaments, from their debut in 1996 to Morocco 2025.
They reached the round of 16, beating Angola 2–1 and Zimbabwe 3–2 and losing 1–0 to Egypt in Group B, before Cameroon beat them 2–1 in Rabat.
Not yet. Qualifying begins on 24 September 2026. South Africa are in Group D with Guinea, Kenya and Eritrea; Kenya qualified automatically as co-hosts, so only the best-placed of the other three teams goes through.
At home to Guinea at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg on 26 September 2026, then away to Eritrea on 30 September in a match SAFA says will be staged in Cairo.
Pitso Mosimane, appointed on 1 September 2026 to succeed Hugo Broos. It is his second spell in charge of Bafana Bafana.
Sources · checked 21 September 2026
Historical figures cover AFCON finals tournaments only. Qualification, squads and rankings change — each is dated where it appears.
AFCON 2027
Travel to the Africa Cup of Nations in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda — arranged from anywhere in Africa and the diaspora.
Travel Ease Company is an independent travel agency. We are not an official CAF or AFCON partner, sponsor, supplier or ticketing agent, and we are not affiliated with the Confédération Africaine de Football.
Match tickets. Tickets are purchased through CAF’s official ticketing channel. Travel Ease provides ticket-purchase assistance. Tickets are not included in any package unless your written quotation specifically states otherwise.
Fixtures and venues. Fixtures, host cities and qualification are determined and published by CAF. We show them only once officially confirmed.
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