Pitso proud to prove himself

Johannesburg - Nearly a year since being appointed, Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane has revealed his pride at proving his doubters wrong. The 46-year-old, who officially took over from Carlos Alberto Parreira in July last year, is cultivating a winning culture in the South African camp after a series of positive results.

The national team is on the verge of qualifying out of a tricky group for the 2012 African Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and have moved up in the world and African rankings.

Mosimane believes it took a brave man to step into the job, especially with the preconceived ideas about local coaches which pervade the game in the country.

"Proving suitable for this post was a huge personal challenge," he told IOL.

"There were a lot of people who didn't believe I could do this job. There were so many doubters but I knew I would prove myself.

"I have never doubted my capabilities, but I understood at the time that I shouldn't talk back. I could only be judged on results."

Mosimane has previously admitted his dislike of the policies of previous coaches, who favoured European-based players over local performers.

The former Bafana number two has now also revealed his belief that a lasting colonial mindset was an obstacle to progress for the national team.

"If you're black you have to deal with a lot of perceptions and stereotypes," he claimed.

"Had I failed when I got here, I would have failed a lot of people and confirmed that those who have wrong perceptions about us - that we can't do this job - would succeed.

"There's a wrong mentality of not believing in local black coaches, some sort of mental colonialism, and that's bad for our football.

"Also, the other perception was that senior national players won't listen to a local black coach. But I was encouraged by what Shakes Mashaba did during his tenure.

"He inspired me because I could see he got results. We are also getting results. It is not by luck that we moved from position 58 in the world to the current 38. We were also placed 19th on the continent.

"Today we are fourth."

Mosimane is confident the team will beat Niger in their next AFCON qualifer in September to seal their passage to the finals.

He added: "We need to go there and confirm qualification. I can't believe that both Egypt and Sierra Leone lost there.

"If we give the same performance we did against Egypt, we will win in Niger. The worst possible result for us would be a draw.

"I don't think we'll lose there."