Bafana Bafana renamed Mabena Mabena following Morocco defeat

The chances of South Africa’s national football team of making it through to the knockout phase of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) are looking slim following a goal conceded in the 90th minute leading to a 1-0 loss against Morocco.

The people of Twitter, of course, were their usual unforgiving selves. Bafana Bafana has been rechristened #MabenaMabena, in a hashtag that has been trending on Twitter.

READ MORE: Insipid Bafana suffer late heartbreak against Morocco

Mabena is a member of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) who rose to fame (or perhaps notoriety) after a couple of videos of him being chastised for being a disappointment and “tall and lazy for nothing” went viral.

He has since become a national symbol for disappointment. The national team’s nickname Bafana Bafana transforming into Mabena Mabena is, therefore, a natural shift.

Those who threw shade at the team using the hashtag included the official City of Joburg Twitter account, which said those who turned their TV on to watch the match were “wasting electricity”.

The real #MabenaMabena are the people who had their TVs on last night. We can't keep wasting electricity like this. Cima! #SaveEnergy ^GZ pic.twitter.com/ZaZABJYvfO

— City of Joburg (@CityofJoburgZA) July 2, 2019

Here are some of the other #MabenaMabena tweets.

They shouldn’t have fired their best player Trevor Noah #MabenaMabena pic.twitter.com/4LISJgSa26

— MAFIA (@i_speakit) July 2, 2019

I knew it.. 😂😂🤦🏿‍♂️#MabenaMabena pic.twitter.com/dZJcHETttr

— Dirty Juice (@Ndzabaman) July 2, 2019

https://twitter.com/Blonde_Mimz/status/1145944536620965889

#MabenaMabena the true definition of the boys. pic.twitter.com/ZV5TbpzU2V

— Nomgqibelo Ncamisile Mnqhibisa (@Tealmooss) July 2, 2019

#MabenaMabena
Pay the sangoma who helped bafana bafana who beat France at 2010 fifa world cup, he is the reason we are suffering he cursed the team. pic.twitter.com/4bwqfpOGXb

— Musa🇿🇦🇿🇦 (@Swangs_M) July 2, 2019

I feel sorry for the wives and girlfriends of the national soccer team. These poor souls have to come up with words to console their partners when they lose when we all know it takes a lot of will and good acting to pretend they could win.#MabenaMabena

— Nqoe (@NqoeT) July 2, 2019

https://twitter.com/JabuKhuluse/status/1145941841344225280

The hashtag originated after Bafana’s 1-0 loss to Ivory Coast on June 24.

We now only have 3 points on the board, from our 1-0 defeat of Namibia.

While mathematically we can still qualify for the knockout phase, it’s unlikely and will require several results going our way.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)

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