07 May 2026 – The South African Football Association (SAFA) Coach Education Department has just completed one of the most important elements of coaching education following the conclusion of the FIFA Coach Educator Course for Developers in Johannesburg recently.
Led by FIFA Coach Education Manager, Keneilwe Mathibela (South Africa), FIFA Expert Claudio de Almeida Gomes, (Angola) and FIFA Coordinator Bastien Venturi, (Switzerland), the four-day Developers’ Course was attended by six South Africans – Desmond Lewis, Duncan Crowie, Edwin Johannes, Sweetness Masango, Phera Ratlhankana and Augustine Makalakalane.
The course Competencies and Topics:
- Safeguarding
- Mentoring
- Teacher Theory / Practical
- Assessment
- Technician
The six Coaches’ Developers have been selected from different provinces, and the overall plan is to cover all nine provinces.
“Overall, it was a great four days, very interactive, informative. What we had in attendance were six Coach Educators’ Developers selected to participate on this course. In 2024, 18 participants were selected for Member Association (MA) Coach Educators’ course where FIFA was working with them, and these attendees are part of the 18. So, the six that have attended the course will in the end mentor the remaining 12,” said SAFA Head of Coach Education Department Zunaid Mall.
“Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, the distribution of the coaches was done in terms of trying to see how we can ensure that all nine provinces are covered, which means all the SAFA regions will be covered as well and then we can assign the Coach Educator Developers to the FIFA Coach Educators,” added Mall.
SAFA Technical Director Molefi Ntseki, who was instrumental in getting the course on track, was in attendance during the four days. He was also joined by SAFA CEO Lydia Monyepao.
Ntseki explains: “The importance of this course is that we believe good quality coach educators will help in the development of good quality coaches, so it is more of a chain in terms of getting to the level of a player. These Coach Developers are going to develop Coach Educators, and we refer to them as ‘training the trainer’. So they are the ones that are being trained to develop more coach educators.”
The second phase of this course has been penciled in for later this year.
“This was just the first phase, and the second will be in September where they will be coming in for assessment. So, between now and then they will be mentoring the FIFA Coach Educators. Once they have completed with all the competencies and requirements, they will be awarded FIFA Diplomas, which will qualify them to be FIFA experts when it comes to coach education,” added Ntseki.
“We started with the six and we are looking at going into the next group and the third group because currently we have other coaches that are still to go through this program. We’re going to roll it out over time so that maybe by the end of next year we will be having all our 18 coaches having qualified as Coach Educators Developers.”
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