Finally, after a long wait, SAFA has announced that the current SuperSport United coach, Stuart Baxter, will be the man to take over from the departed Shakes Mashaba.

Now the question is, have they found a suitable man to lead Bafana Bafana in Baxter? Only time will tell. This is not his first job as the Bafana coach for him, as he was in charge of Bafana between 2004 and 2006. His local records speak for itself for and for Baxter’s ability to lead the team to the next level. The only concern is that he does not have much experience when it comes to African competitions. It may look like there was an element of desperation at SAFA house when coming to this decision.

There were other candidates that were linked with this job who have plenty of African experience. Current AFCON champion winning coach with Cameroon, Hugo Broos, was one of the favourites to take over the job. And the Belgian surprised the continent when he took a relatively young, unknown team to Gabon this year and won the championship.

We tend to judge these coaches even before they start with their work and one advantage that Baxter has extensive knowledge of local football. But, the last time he was in charge of Bafana, he failed to lead them to the continental tournament in Tunisia back in 2004.

*This article was written by a Soccer Laduma reader and reflects their opinion, not that of Soccer Laduma.