THERE was a time when Bafana Bafana were genuinely a source of banter, like that time when - thinking that they had qualified for a tournament - they danced away in the dusk of Mbombela in 2011, only to discover tragically that in fact they hadn't made it.

We've been made to believe that those days are now over, with Bafana having undergone a rejuvenation under Shakes Mashaba, which culminated with their qualification for last month's Africa Cup of Nations finals.

It thus came as a huge surprise to me that the mere mention of Bafana at last week's State of the Nation address was one of the few occasions which elicited mirth from an otherwise sombre evening. As he stammered towards conclusion of his address, President Jacob Zuma moved to touch on the sporting front.

He said: "The Springboks will participate in the IRB World Cup that takes place in England in September 2015. The Proteas are in Australia and New Zealand to participate in the International Cricket Council World Cup. All South Africans must as usual rally behind the national teams."

This was met with loud applause, but the mood became comedic when he mentioned Bafana, which incidentally was not in his initial written speech.

Giggling, he said something along these lines: "They qualified excellently [for the Nations Cup] ... they were in a group of death and yet they scored first each time. They performed excellently."

As to why this should be met with laughter was puzzling. Were the members laughing at the fact that Bafana bombed out at the first round in Equatorial Guinea, or that the president giggled before mentioning them?

It is unbecoming that Bafana, even to this day, would be seen as a butt of jokes when compared to other national teams. The reaction to the president's mention of Bafana last week reminded me of a recent incident involving Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula.

Addressing the SA cricket team's departure jamboree in Sandton, Mbalula - even by his hyperbole standards - shocked all and sundry by telling the Proteas at a press conference: "You must not be like Shakes [Mashaba] and Bafana. When they were winning qualifiers and friendlies, they thought they had arrived."

Some people laughed at this, but most - including senior Proteas members - were shocked at how the minister could possibly have found the courage to spew such nonsense, ridiculing a national team and its coach on such a platform.

And Mbalula had spent a week with Bafana in Mongomo, justifying his presence there as a way to "motivate and support" them.

But his dig at the team, in their absence but with full knowledge that his message would reach them, confirmed that politicians will always be disingenuous, happy to jump onto the next bandwagon with little regard for ethics.

Some of these politicians, led by Mr Selfies himself, filled the Bafana dressing room following their triumph over Spain in November 2013 for photo opportunities and soundbytes. But not one was around to defend the team when Mbalula let rip and called them a "bunch of losers" a few months later.

Sports teams in general, and Bafana in particular, would do well to avoid opportunistic politicians who in one moment could praise them, and the next turn them into a national joke.