As Bafana Bafana prepare for the Africa Cup of Nations to be played in Egypt, snl24.com/kickoff looks at the team's record whenever the competition has been played in North Africa and it does not look too good.
This is the third time Bafana will be at an AFCON hosted by a North African country. In 2004 the side coached by Avril "Styles" Phumo at the time participated in the competition held in Tunisia and they were knocked out at the first hurdle, following their three Group D matches.
Bafana started the competition with a positive result against Benin, winning 2-0 thanks to a brace from the recently retired Siyabonga Nomvethe in Sfax. What followed, however, was a proper football lesson by Nigeria's Super Eagles, who hammered Bafana 4-0 in Monastir. Bafana needed to win their final group match against Morocco to progress to the last eight, but they played to a 1-1 draw, as former Kaizer Chiefs and SuperSport United forward Patrick Mayo got on the score sheet.
Bafana finished the group in third place on four points.
Two years later the competition was hosted by Egyptian and it will go down as arguably the worst AFCON Bafana have ever taken part in. The late Ted Dumitru was in charge of the team, which featured the likes of Benni McCarthy, Sibusiso Zuma and Siphiwe Tshabalala.
They had beaten Egypt in a friendly match ahead of the competition, so naturally the expectations were high. Bafana, though, were an absolute disappoint. They finished the group stages without a win, a point or a goal in a group which featured Guinea, Tunisia and Zambia.