Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has expressed his anger at Mbekezeli Mbokazi’s “unprofessional attitude” and Orlando Pirates on Wednesday, 10 December 2025.
This comes after Mbokazi missed his return flight from a short break in Durban and thus arrived late for the senior national team’s camp in Pretoria. The furious Broos labelled the incident as an “unprofessional attitude of a South African player.”
The 20-year-old was supposed to join the Bafana Bafana camp in Tshwane on Tuesday after his final match for Pirates, but his club Pirates cited a missed flight from Durban as the reason for the delay.
Recently the Buccaneers announced that the young defender completed a successful medical and finalised personal terms with Chicago Fire during his recent trip to the United States.
“I am very angry; very angry with this attitude,” Broos told the media.
“Suddenly, he is a star. He thinks he is a star. He thinks he has arrived,” Broos said, explaining that he had been informed by Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou of Mbokazi’s failure to catch the scheduled flight back to Gauteng, after being given a few days off.
“He’s just arrived in camp and I didn’t want to speak about it, but you have the right to know. He let us know that he missed his flight from Durban.
“The coach of Pirates informed me and he was very angry that he missed his flight. That’s an unprofessional attitude and I think I have spoken to you before about the unprofessional attitude of South African players. It’s really nonsense that he missed his flight.
“That is the worst thing from the player; a very unprofessional attitude. This is very bad when you are a 19-year-old guy who is still to grow up and play at Afcon and play at the World Cup.”
