The 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations was briefly went into doubt on Sunday after a South African deputy minister said the tournament had switched hosts from Morocco to South Africa, only for her own ministry to issue a formal walk back within hours and for Morocco’s federation to frame the episode as a South African internal breakdown.
The spark came at the Hollywoodbets Super League awards when deputy minister Bertha Peace Mabe said South Africa would stage the finals and suggested Morocco had stepped aside. South African reporting said she later repeated the claim on SABC, arguing South Africa declared readiness after being told Morocco no longer wanted to host.
On January 16, CAF published the final draw for Women’s AFCON Morocco 2026 and listed the tournament dates as March 17 to April 3 with 16 teams, including South Africa in Group B. No CAF notice has announced a relocation.
South Africa’s sports minister Gayton McKenzie then issued a ministry statement saying no formal decision had been taken to move the tournament and that Morocco remained the officially designated host, adding that CAF had not triggered an alternative hosting process.
In Morocco, an unnamed official source inside the Royal Moroccan Football Federation treatedthe South Afican ministry statement as the end of the story.
The source told Hespress AR the deputy minister’s comments “ended with an official statement” from her ministry and insisted it was “an internal disturbance” that “does not concern Morocco.”
The same source set a credibility test that goes to the heart of CAF governance. If Morocco were withdrawing, the source said, it would be announced formally and jointly with CAF, not through political remarks abroad so close to kickoff.
CAF hosting is contract and decision driven, and any host change would require a formal CAF process and an official update.
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