Brazilian-born Joel Natalino Santana resigned as Bafana Bafana on Monday after he met with the South African Football Association (SAFA) management committee. This followed a dismal sixteen months in charge of the national soccer team that has seen the country plunge down the rankings to 85th place. That ranking is Bafana Bafana's lowest to-date, with South Africa dropping twelve positions from last month's placing. Santana's departure, or shall I say “forced resignation” was widely expected after he returned to Johannesburg last Thursday with a demoralised squad who lost both matches on a Scandinavian tour to Norway and Iceland last week.

Did Santana resign or was he forced to do so by the powers to be? The 1-0 loss to Iceland in Reykjavik  was the final straw for the press and many in SAFA too. It was South Africa's eighth defeat in their last nine friendly internationals since reaching the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup in June. "Santana resigned after he met with the president [Kirsten Nematandani] on Monday," said SAFA spokesperson Morio Sanyane. The parties had a heart-to-heart talk and Santana decided to stand down, but the coach complained that the initial agreement with SAFA did not include a technical team to assist him. Therefore he was not prepared to carry on with his contract.

In the meantime, Santana's assistant coaches Pitso Mosimane and Brazilian born Jairo Leal took charge of the squad until a new coach was appointed to and inherited the most unenviable task in African football.  Santana's first match in charge had been a tough away African Nations Cup qualifier against Nigeria in Abuja. Bafana Bafana lost 2-0 and then failed to qualify for the Nations Cup finals in Angola in January 2010. The writing was already on the wall then.

I must admit that Santana did not have the top quality players to select from. It doesn't help that most of the best players ply their trade in Europe, which means long-distance travel and clubs that are less than keen to let players go for internationals. South Africa has not had a competitive match that clubs are bound to respect since failing to qualify for the second round of qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations apart from the Confederations Cup

Aaron Mokoena, Steven Pienaar and Elrio van Heerden play in the English Premier League. Macbeth Sibaya has an even more awakward journey. He plays for Russian champions Rubin Kazin and Bernard Parker plays in the Netherlands for FC Twente, coached by former England manager Steve McClaren, Tiko Modise at least plays for South African club side the Orlando Pirates, but Santana could not build a competetive team from the players that he had at his disposal. A decent showing in the World Cup is essential for the honour of the countryy and African football as a whole. Santana had to go.

Santana made mistakes too. He did not include Nassief Morris or Benny McCarthy in his squad for the Confederations Cup. I still can't understand why they were left out.  He also evaded questions on team selection at media briefings, which further alienated the local press and he was on the verge of being fired in June during the Confederations Cup after his ultra-defensive team were held to a 0-0 draw by lowly Iraq in the opening match played at Ellis Park on June 14, but a 2-0 win over minnows New Zealand in the next game saved Santana's neck. Bafana Bafana went on to lose 2-0 to Spain and were beaten by 1-0 by Brazil in the semifinals. I must add that Santana applied the correct tactics against Brazil. Mokoena and Mathew Booth from Sundowns missed open headers to score before Brazil did.

South Africa produced their best performance under Santana in the third placed play-off when Spain needed extra time to defeat the team 3-2 at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium on June 28. After narrowly hanging on to his job less than a month earlier Santana was hailed as the new football Messiah, but now he is out on his ear. What a turn around! Meanwhile, the rebuilding began as Bafana Bafana beat 131st ranked Madagascar 1-0  in Kimberley with no overseas based players in the team.

SAFA were determined to restore pride in the national team, but their interim solution was a recipe for disaster. The decision by SAFA to appoint Gavin Hunt, Clive Barker and Jomo Sono as technical advisors is mind boggling. Let the dinosaurs be part of the African Museum Exhibition!

The only solution that I can see, at least in the short term,  is to give the job back to Carlos Parreira and to exclude these other coaches. Parreira has advantages. He doesn't need time to adapt and already knows the players, but the SAFA know that he will resign if he feels it necessary. This time he can demand the set-up that he wants, but that comes at a price too. Despite the short time he has to work with Parreira will know that he must deliver nothing less than a decent showing in our World Cup. Failure will not be tolerated and he knows that.