The national Under-20s will travel to West Africa for the first leg on the weekend of 15-17 August, with the return leg two weeks later in South Africa.
“Cameroon will be difficult, no doubt about it, and matches against them have never been easy because those countries from West Africa dominate the Youth Championships,” Mashaba says.
“We need to plan properly to ensure that we go there well armed. The fortunate part is that we are playing the first leg away, so we need to go there, get a good result, and come back home to finish it off.”
Mashaba adds: “We might have a practice match in West Africa before we face Cameroon. Besides the preparation match we know what to expect – they are physical, push forward all the time, and sometimes play long balls.
“They also have skillful players in their teams. We don’t have big boys and we shouldn’t go to a corner and cry about it; we need to develop big hearts – go in there and not chicken out. Also keep possession.”
South Africa proceeded to the third round following a 3-0 aggregate win over Ethiopia – 2-0 and 1-0 in Addis Ababa and South Africa respectively.