WATCH | Bafana finally board their flight to Mexico and the World Cup

Bafana Bafana were at OR Tambo International Airport on Monday afternoon ready for their day-late flight to Mexico for the 2026 World Cup, their social media platforms showed.

The South African national team was controversially delayed from its planned Sunday departure due to many of the players and technical staff not having received their US visas by the weekend.

A video posted on the official Bafana Bafana X account showed players at OR Tambo, ready for departure late on Monday afternoon and then boarding their chartered flight.

The video was accompanied by text stating: “Bafana Bafana are finally heading to Mexico. All the best, boys! make us proud and fly the flag high!”

It was not clear if the four members of the camp who had not received their visas by Monday morning had received their paperwork and were joining the rest of the squad on its departure.

Assistant coach Helman Mkhalele, who was among the four, was not shown in the video posted on X.

Safa’s media department had not released any information regarding any update on the four members and could not be reached for clarification at the time of publishing.

The association on Monday apologised to South Africans for the administrative blunder that resulted in the team failing to leave as scheduled on Sunday and thanked the international relations and co-operation department (Dirco) and the US consulate for their assistance in resolving the matter speedily.

It is understood the late visas were due to an administrative blunder by Safa.

Teams and officials travelling to the World Cup obtain US visas, which then also apply for co-hosts Mexico and Canada.

Sport, arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie posted on X that the four members still waiting for visas were the “assistant coach [Mkhalele], the team doctor, the head of security, and one analyst”.

South Africa coach Hugo Broos wanted to leave at least 10 days before that match because he said it takes that length of time to adjust to high altitude.

Mexico City sits at 2,240m above sea level, 500m above high-altitude Johannesburg (1,750m).

Bafana’s training base at Universidad del Futbol y Ciencias del Deporte, part of the Grupo in Pachuca, 95km outside Mexico City, sits at 2,430m.

A Tuesday arrival will leave Bafana about 10 days to adapt to the altitude.

It was not clear if the late departure would affect plans to meet Jamaica in a final warm-up friendly in Mexico on a date to be announced.