Safa still investigating Mokotjo issue

Mokotjo was announced as part of the Bafana squad on Thursday for friendly matches against Guinea-Bissau and Angola at the end of the month. However, the 25 year-old took up citizenship of the Netherlands in December 2016, and would ordinarily have had to renounce his South African citizenship as a result, according to Dutch law.

“I am looking into that, the guys assured me he can still play, even though he took another nationality, but I am trying to get hold of team management,” Mumble told Phakaaathi on Friday.

Bafana careraker coach Owen Da Gama said on Thursday, as he announced the squad, that he was not aware of an issue with Mokotjo’s nationality. The player also retired from international football in April 2016, clearly frustrated at a lack of game time under former coach Shakes Mashaba.

“I expected the coach and management would have spoken to him (Mokotjo) before calling him up,” added Mumble.

“We never retired him, that is the key thing. We are not done with players unless there are disciplinary issues. It is the coach’s prerogative (to select players) and the fact is that he (Mashaba) did call him but decided when he was going to play and when he was not and it turned out the way it did. We have a different coach in place now, so that coach has the prerogative to choose the players he wants, there are no enemies of the association.”