Williams closing in on Bafana record

South Africa captain Ronwen Williams is moving closer to the record number of appearances for South Africa at the Africa Cup of Nations finals.

The Bafana goalkeeper has played in 14 matches at the finals tournaments, first in 2019 in Egypt when South Africa reached the quarter-final and then in the Ivory Coast two years ago when they took the bronze medal.

Ronwen Williams is flying high! 🏆 He's earned his 60th Bafana Bafana cap against Zimbabwe and is closing in on Andre Arendse's 67 caps. 😮 Williams is currently 2nd among goalkeepers with the most Bafana caps, behind Itumeleng Khune (91) ¹.

👊 The 2024 CAF African Goalkeeper of… pic.twitter.com/PO9YQeXsyx — GOAL South Africa (@GOALcomSA) January 2, 2026

He has made 13 successive appearances since replacing Darren Keet in goal for the last group game at the 2019 finals against Morocco.

If the 33-year-old starts as expected in Sunday’s last-16 clash against Cameroon in Rabat, it will be his 15th game at the Cup of Nations finals, putting him above Shaun Bartlett (14) on the list, and fast catching up to John Moshoeu (19), Lucas Radebe (17) and Mark Fish and Helman Mkhalele (16), who is the current assistant coach of the team.

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Moshoeu played in the winning 1996 side and again in 1998, when South Africa reached the final, and 2000 but missed out in 2002. But he won a recall at the age of 38 and competed at the 2024 finals in Tunisia where he won the last two of his 73 caps.

Radebe went to three Cup of Nations finals in 1996, 1998 and 2000, and was captain in the last two.