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The 3 February 1996 is date etched into South Africa's sporting history - it is the day Bafana Bafana lifted the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time.

A quarter of a century later that win remains their only success in the tournament despite the country's status as a continental superpower.

South African football expert Mark Gleeson looks back at what has now become a reference point for South African football as well as a nostalgic throwback and at why the current South Africa teams looks a long way from repeating the feat.

Tournament memories

The South African football community now increasingly harks back to that Saturday 25 years ago when substitute Mark Williams scored twice in the second half against Tunisia at Soccer City.

His goals set off frenzied home celebrations at the end of a tournament that South Africa hurriedly put together, after Kenya had been stripped as hosts.

Their path to victory had been made somewhat easier by Nigeria pulling out on the eve of the tournament because of a diplomatic spat with South Africa after Nelson Mandela criticised the judicial killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Sani Abacha regime.

Nigeria were holders and their powerful team would later that year go onto win the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, but winning coach Clive Barker says his Bafana Bafana side were "the right team at the right place and time".

They started the tournament in ominous style by beating Cameroon 3-0 and played the game of their career to beat Ghana by the same score in the semi-finals.

South Africa's consecration as champions - at their first attempt tin the finals - by beating Tunisia proved an emotive affair, highlighted by a beaming Nelson Mandela pumping his fists in delight as he stood on the presentation podium in a South African team jersey.

Stuck in gear

But while South Africa have since gone onto compete at nine subsequent Nations Cup tournaments, they only other time they have reached the final was two years later in in Burkina Faso.

Hosting the 2010 World Cup handed the country a massive infrastructure boost but any improvement hoped for on the field never materialised.

On the anniversary of their Nations Cup win Bafana Bafana are the 13th best team in Africa and 71st overall, according to the latest Fifa rankings.

When they won the 96 Nations Cup, they went up to 19th in the world and have never been that high in the rankings since.

Much of the lustre around the team has gone and as a result commercial connections are proving harder to find.

Sponsors were once queuing to associate themselves with the team, but now the South African Football Association has to make barter deals and get municipalities to cover the costs of hosting their fixtures.

The last time the team played in a front of a crowd - before the Covid-19 pandemic, was a Nations Cup qualifier against Sudan at Soweto's Orlando Stadium in November 2019, where just over 10 000 came to watch.