- Winners: 1996
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- Runners-up: 1998
- South Africa have played in every African Cup of Nations tournament since they hosted it in 1996 but they failed at their first attempt in the qualifiers for the 1994 finals. At the last Cup of Nations in Egypt, they went home without any points or any goals.
- A 2-0 win over Canada in November ended a dismal run of just a single victory in eight successive matches for the side, who have slipped dramatically down the Fifa world rankings over the past two years.
- World Cup-winning coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has been South Africa's coach since January, tasked with building a team for the hosting of the 2010 World Cup finals.
- Parreira, who turns 65 in February, is the first World Cup-winning coach to take charge of a team at the Nations Cup finals.
- 25-year-old Teko Modise emerged as a late bloomer at the end of his first season in South Africa's premier league to become the new star of the South African side. Since his debut in May has played 12 successive internationals and scored five goals in the process.
- German-based winger Sibusiso Zuma (32) is the oldest player in a squad where several other regulars have been left out to allow the coach some experimentation ahead of the 2010 World Cup on home soil.
- Parreira has left out first team regulars Delron Buckley, Bradley Carnell, Benni McCarthy and MacBeth Sibaya in an attempt to introduce some younger players into a competitive tournament environment.
- South Africa were the first of the 16 finalists to name their 23-man squad, more than six weeks before their opening game against Angola in Tamale. They have included two uncapped players.
Prior to 1994: South Africa were expelled from CAF and Fifa because of apartheid
1994: Did not qualify
1996: Winners
1998: Runners-up
2000: Third place
2002: Last eight
2004: First round
2006: First round
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