Ronwen Williams talks about Bafana Bafana qualifying for the 2026 World Cup | OneFootball

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The path to the 2026 FIFA World Cup has narrowed to a tense, demanding stretch for Bafana Bafana. A harsh penalty from FIFA—a three-point deduction for an ineligible player—saw them brutally unseated from the summit of Group C, with Benin stepping into the coveted top spot. Now, level on points but trailing on goal difference, the mission is clear, yet fraught with complexity.

In the face of this adversity, Captain Ronwen Williams stands as the embodiment of a squad determined to seize control of its own narrative. As they prepare to face Zimbabwe in the cauldron of Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium, his message is not one of hope, but of intent.

The equation is simple: victory in their final two fixtures against Zimbabwe and Rwanda is non-negotiable. While the possibility exists for Benin to falter against the formidable Nigeria or a resurgent Rwanda, Williams makes it abundantly clear that the South African camp is building its strategy on self-reliance, not supplication.

On the team's mentality and self-belief

“We know what’s at stake, it’s coming to the end now, and it’s the business end of the qualifiers, but nothing needs to change, and we just have to be the team that we have been in the last two or three years. We’ve been growing, we’ve been so good, but we need to finish it off on a good note, we set ourselves high standards. When we started the World Cup campaign, we said we want to be there, we want to qualify and it’s close now.”

He dismisses any notion of looking elsewhere for salvation, framing the challenge as a test of their own resolve and quality.

On taking ownership of their fate

“It’s in our hands and I think that’s the most important thing that we are not going to look for favours or rely on other teams. We want to get the job done and that’s the mentality that we all have in camp. We have got two important games, we know how tough it is going to be. They are not going to make it easy for us and we don’t expect them to. If you have to see how training was this week, you can see that the boys mean business and they know how important it is for us to qualify.”

While the challenging fixtures that await their rivals may yet play to Bafana's advantage, the team's focus, as directed by their captain, remains unshakably internal. For Williams and his squad, the only acceptable route to the World Cup is the one they carve for themselves, one determined victory at a time.