The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has revealed the match officials for the four quarterfinals matches of the AFCON finals with two of them being handled by referees of interest to South Africa.
All the last eight matches will take place tomorrow and Sunday before the semi-finals in midweek and the decider next week Sunday (February 6).
Top South African Referee Victor Gomes has been handed the task of handling the game between Senegal and Equatorial Guinea on Sunday with fellow countryman Zakhele Siwela set to run the line as the first assistant.
Gomes – one of the six candidate referees for the World Cup later this year – has already taken charge of two games at the tournament, issuing eight yellow cards.
This is his first knockout stage match in the competition.
Then the man at the centre of the controversy which led to Bafana Bafana being bundled out of the World Cup qualifiers – Maguette Ndiaye – has also been appointed for the quarterfinals.
The Senegalese will take charge of the Egypt and Morocco match, which is also being played on Sunday.
He will have his fellow countrymen El Hadji Samba and Djibril Camara on the lines.
Ndiaye handled the last 16 game in which Tunisia overcame Nigeria and had the whistle for Ndiaye for the Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone group stages match while he was a fourth official for the rest of his appointments in this tournament.
Joshua Bondo from Botswana will referee the match between Burkina Faso and Tunisia while Pacifique Ndabihawenimana of Burundi will run the rule for the Gambia and Cameroon contest.
Refereeing matters have been a focal point at the tournament with Zambian referee Janny Sikazwe making a mess in Mali's win over Tunisia.