South African referee Abongile Tom will officiate the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between Egypt and Cape Verde on 6 September.

Tom will be joined by fellow South African Zakhele Siwela as his first assistant and Lesotho international Souru Phatsoane as his second assistant. Siwela and Phatsoane were previously involved in the 2022 AFCON final, flanking Victor Gomes who became the first South African to officiate the AFCON final.

Jelly Chavani will serve as the reserve referee for the Egypt-Cape Verde match. Meanwhile, Gomes, who retired after the 2022 AFCON final, has been appointed as a referee assessor for the Algeria-Equatorial Guinea match on 5 September.

For Bafana Bafana’s home match against Uganda on 6 September, CAF has appointed Pierre Ghislain Atcho from Gabon. Atcho has previously officiated in South Africa, overseeing a match between Mamelodi Sundowns and Pyramids in the CAF Champions League group stages at Loftus Stadium last season. He sent off Pyramids’ Osama Galal Hamed in the 89^th minute.  

In the second round of qualifiers, Joseph Odey Ogabor has been assigned to referee the match between South Sudan and Bafana Bafana on 10 September.

While no South African referees will be involved in any match-day two fixtures, SAFA NEC member Bennett Bailey will serve as match commissioner for the Eswatini-Mali match at Mbombela Stadium on 10 September. Eswatini is one of 17 CAF member associations currently banned from hosting home matches due to venue standards.

SAFA head of referees Abdul Ebrahim will also be absent from the country, having been appointed as a referee assessor for the Burundi-Senegal match in Lilongwe on 9 September.

These qualifiers will continue in October and November as CAF has condensed the schedule to accommodate the resumption of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and the AFCON tournament in Morocco next year.