South Africa's under-23s are not quite on the cusp of history yet but by progressing to the Olympic qualifying tournament, they have given themselves a shot of qualifying for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The crucial eight-nation tournament will be staged in Senegal later this year.

The South Africans earned their ticket to West Africa through an entertaining 3-0 win over their Zimbabwean counterparts at Harry Gwala Stadium, Pietermaritzburg, on Saturday night.

The two sides played to a 1-all draw in the first leg in Zimbabwe.

The third qualifying round was completed yesterday but South Africa's wins, despite some teething defensive issues that nearly allowed Zimbabwe to find a way back after the hosts took an early lead through Keagan Dolly.

While coach Owen da Gama was clearly happy with his team's result, he conceded that they were only at 70% of where they are supposed to be. They were without the likes of Menzi Masuku, who was on duty with Orlando Pirates for the Carling Black Label Cup on the same day, and Da Gama was forced to retreat centre-back Zitha Macheke at right back to counter Kudakwashe Mahachi.

"We are at 70% of where this team can be and we have a lot of quality in this country. We've got players of varying strengths and Macheke is not a right-back, but he did very well when he was asked to play in the position," Da Gama said.

"I would love to see someone help him there and create some competition. We can also strengthen up front. We can get better and one of the only ways we can do that is to play matches against the top African countries like Ghana and Ivory Coast. We did start a bit jittery with our defence but we did the most important thing, which was to score first and early and that opened them up."

With Algeria, Egypt, Zambia and Tunisia all booking their places on Saturday, Da Gama's wish for stronger opponents will be granted in Senegal.