South Africa, Botswana and Zambia will go back to the drawing board knowing what they need to work on following the completion of the Three Nations Challenge – this after the three countries clubbed together to play a series of matches in preparation for the upcoming TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in July in Morocco.
The trio has qualified for the continental women’s tournament and were using the tournament to fine-tune their squad.
Botswana could only manage a 1-1 draw with Zambia (Saturday, 31 May in their encounter, while on their way to lifting the Three Nations Challenge trophy, the Sasol-sponsored Banyana, who were also the hosts, beat Botswana 3-2 (Wednesday, 28 May 2025) and followed it up with a 2-0 victory over the Copper Queens.
The final match of the competition, held at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville, near Pretoria, was played on Tuesday (3 June 2025).
Bongeka Gamede and Jermaine Seoposenwe spearheaded South Africa’s win over the Copper Queens with goals in the 71st and 82nd minutes.
The African Champions haven’t lost a match in 2025 with victories over Lesotho in February (1-0 & 2-0), Malawi in April (3-0 & 2-0), Botswana in May (3-2) and now Zambia in June (2-0).
Players will now return to their clubs – those still in season – and will assemble for a pre-tournament training camp later this month.
For the South Africans these are anxious times as head coach Desiree Ellis has announced a squad of 46 players, which will be trimmed down to 21 on Monday, 23 June ahead of their departure to Morocco.
The WAFCON runs from 5-26 July.
In 2022 Banyana won the title, Zambia reached the semi-finals while Botswana bombed out of the quarterfinal stage.
Here’s what they said:
Desiree Ellis: Head Coach – Banyana Banyana
We knew the match was going to be a lot more difficult and in the first half we were talking that we needed a goal, because of those half chances we had. But they also got in once or twice behind us and we need to be really tight at the back. We changed things a bit, moved the ball around quicker and gave more support, and then we score that fantastic free kick. We said we needed to be better than what we were against Botswana especially defensively, and when we get opportunities, we need to take them, and we did. I thought sometimes, especially in the middle of the field, we gave the ball away unnecessarily and towards the end of the game we should have played the game in their half but we made some silly errors and we need to manage the game better at that time – it was a fantastic performance and I’d like to say thank you to the analyst, to the goalkeeper coach, to the assistant coach and to the conditioning coach because the work that they do behind the scenes shows that we analyze them really well.
I think also it was a good advert for woman’s football, especially the COSAFA region, having three fantastic teams like Botswana, South Africa and Zambia shows that football is healthy in the southern African region and what a good send off for all the teams going to WAFCON.
We’re all going to take a little bit of a break, recover from flu, take a bit of a rest as well and then we’ll get back to business, in bringing players in, selecting a squad and continuing with our preparation because this just shows that we on the right track it also shows that there is still work to be done, finer details in certain moments that we need to be better and get our game plan in order, get our B plan in order.
Nora Hauptle: Head Coach – Zambia
I think the first half belonged to us, I think we had very good control in defense and in mid press and had some good transitions. Today we were not good with the last pass. In the second half it was a bit of an open game on both sides. We got scored from a set piece and it’s always a bit annoying to get this set piece in. And then we run into a long ball, make a technical error. There needs to be more time for certain players, they are young. We had some good action, but the last pass was missing. We have to admit today that our best players were not at the top level, it can happen, and not that we accept it but basically, we need to take this result like it is.
We are on a process, so now we need to recover from this intense week we have had, the international players to travel back to the clubs. We will have a pre-camp in Zambia and afterwards the international pre camp, so there’s still another game to prepare. I think we will travel to Morocco close to the tournament, but there’s still enough time to work on those details, to get our confidence and I’m pretty sure we will be ready against Morocco in the first opening game.
Lebohang Ramalepe: Vice-captain – Banyana Banyana
A tough one, but we knew that we had stick to our game plan especially taking into consideration that we had many players who were down with flu in camp, and we had only a few players to pick from. We had to push ourselves on the field of play to make sure that in the end we win. I think so far so good it’s just a matter of managing very well the squad that we have and also continue doing great when we go back to our teams, and make sure we don’t lose that momentum when we are back for the national team. Winning our games throughout the year (Lesotho, Malawi, Botswana and Zambia) is a confidence booster but it’s going to be a tough one going to the WAFCON, it’s just a matter of making sure our mentality is strong and making sure that we work very hard with the final upcoming training camp. What we need to improve on also is to score more goals – we will need that fighting spirit, fighting for one another on the field.
Rachel Kundananji: Vice-Captain – Zambia
Very disappointing result, but you know this is a preparation and this is the eye opener for us to see where we should work on and like where we should focus on as we are going to the WAFCON. And I like it that we have lost, if we had won, we could have relaxed but now we are going back and will work hard so that we know when we go to the WAFCON we need to do our level best.
Step by step, you can never go down always go up. Our aim is to go up and to do our best and who knows we could become Champions, which we can do. We have good quality in the team and a team that is worthy to win the Africa Cup, so our target is to work hard, to be the best and come back with something.
Bongeka Gamede: Banyana Banyana midfielder
First of all, I would like to congratulate the players for their beautiful performance today – I think we played well. We knew their strengths and we knew how to capitalize on that. We tried to make sure that they don’t attack us as much as possible and once again, congratulations to the girls, it was not an easy game. We made some mistakes, but we were able to help each other out like a team and going forward we should work together as that is how we managed to score the two goals. I believe the teams that we have played so far, Lesotho, Malawi and Botswana and Zambia have given us an indication of what the WAFCON has in store for us, and we will now continue working hard on our preparations – I believe we will be ready when the WAFCON comes. Results like the ones we have had will help us build on the momentum, and we will start the tournament (WAFCON) on a beautiful note as we have not lost any of our friendlies this year. And this is precisely what the team needs, the momentum that will set the tone. When we get to the WAFCON, we need to know our strengths and theirs too so we know where to hurt them and how we can avoid getting hurt and just work as a team.
By Matlhomola Morake
