South Africa will play Angola four times in under a month later this year in a set of games that could shape the future of national team coach Shakes Mashaba.

But while the Bafana Bafana boss will use what limited time he has available to prepare the side‚ the Angolan league has made sure their coach Romeu Filemón has ample preparation time.

South Africa play Angola over two legs in the final round of African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifiers ahead of the finals tournament to be played in Rwanda next January and February.

South Africa will host the first leg on the weekend of October 16-18‚ with the return in Angola on October 23-25.

But that will be just the warm-up‚ the southern African rivals clash again over two legs in the second round of the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.

Unlike the Chan qualifiers‚ these will fall on official Fifa dates‚ meaning that Mashaba will be able to call on his overseas-based players.

Both legs‚ the first hosted by Angola‚ will be played between November 9-17.

The Angolan league have said they will stop matches on October 11 ahead of the Chan qualifier and not resume until after the tie is finished.

That not only gives Filemón good preparation time‚ but crucially also means there should be none of the club versus country battle that is likely to decimate Mashaba’s build-up plans.

South Africa defeated Mauritius 5-0 on aggregate in the last round‚ but that was played in the close-season in June and July.

Angola were given a scare by a rejuvenated Swaziland‚ but advanced 4-2 on aggregate.

Should Bafana lose to Angola in the World Cup qualifiers then their campaign for Russia in 2018 will be ended at the first hurdle and spell disaster for the local game.

The final round of league matches ahead of those qualifiers will be played on Wednesday‚ November 4‚ but the Telkom Knockout semifinals are slated for the following weekend.