By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Desiree Ellis has finally signed her new four-year contract and can now start preparing for the next Women’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
Banyana Banyana have qualified for the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) after defeating Democratic Republic of Congo 2-1 on aggregate in their second-round qualifying encounter. The first leg, played in Kinshasa, ended 1-1.
The fixtures against their Congolese counterparts were overshadowed by the uncertainty surrounding head coach Desiree Ellis. For both games the long-serving coach was absent from the bench, although she was in the stands as a spectator for the second leg at Dobsonville Stadium.
However SAFA president Danny Jordaan has confirmed that Ellis has officially signed a new contract.
“She signed a contract. You saw her here today, she is happy and everything is fine. I am very happy that we won (against DRC). I am happy everything is settled and you could see from the support for the under-17s and giving them message of support. She is back. We must focus because we have to rebuild Banyana. We have to look at young players and build the team. It’s not going to be easy,” Jordaan said after a farewell breakfast held for the national under-17 team heading for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
“AFCON is going to have many women’s teams that’s going to be difficult. We must rebuild. We are focusing on Morocco and Nigeria, but Ghana are also a strong team and Senegal is coming up, so it’s going to be difficult. We will sit down with her to say ‘what is your strategy, how do we move forward and how do we strengthen the team?'”
Alongside South Africa, Morocco (as host nation), Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia have qualified for the 2026 Wafcon.