Mashaba shakes up CAF in Zulu

The mind games between Bafana Bafana and Algeria began long before their clash here last night.

You might have already heard or read through social media that Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba got comfortable in Zulu in his pre-match press conference for his side's Africa Cup of Nations opener. The truth is, on Sunday night, Mashaba pulled his stunt in solidarity with the travelling SA journalists. He took a decision to answer questions in a language that suited him after he heard the SA media had sat through a press conference without a translator for Algeria coach Christian Gourcuff, who spoke in French. Their defender Rafik Halliche entertained one question in Arabic, which another Algerian journalist claimed was an official CAF language. That was met with some bemusement by the foreign press. In an earlier press conference, Ghana journalists had also struggled to hear the Senegal coach's thoughts on their team ahead of last night's Group B opener.

News got to Mashaba ahead of his press briefing, and he took action. "If I can't speak in English I will speak in my mother tongue. And I speak Zulu, nothing else," Mashaba said. An SABC correspondent fired the first question in Zulu, but was interrupted by the CAF media officer, who demanded to know what language was being used. "There are only two official CAF languages and they are French and English," he said.