South Africa coach Molefi Ntseki has revealed that Neo Maema will captain the team for their crunch African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier against Malawi on Sunday.

Bafana Bafana need to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg of their second-round qualifier to book a place at the tournament for the first time since 2014 when they hosted it.

Maema played no part in the match at the Bingu National Stadium on May 3 due to club commitments with Mamelodi Sundowns , who beat Cape Town City 2-0 that same day to take a step closer to a record eighth Betway Premiership title.

Kwanda Mngonyama wore the armband in Lilongwe, but Ntseki confirmed that the AmaZulu centre-back will serve as deputy to the Masandawana attacking midfielder, who was chosen as skipper for the first-round qualifying victory over Egypt.

“In the previous camp (against Egypt in March), Maema was voted as captain of the team. The captain for the Malawi match is in the camp, but the captain is back. As of now, Maema is the team captain,” Ntseki said.

“Kwanda was given the armband for the match against Malawi and he is fully aware of the change. When SAFA President Dr Danny Jordaan came to visit the team in camp this week, the captain had to address the President and everybody.

“So, we will be going back to Maema as the captain of the team and then have Kwanda as his deputy.”

The importance of qualifying for CHAN is not lost on Maema, who has urged his team-mates to go out and make history against the Flames at Loftus Versfeld.

“Some of the players here don’t play much in their teams, me included, so it’s always nice before the big occasion to just put [in the work] and see how far we are as a team, so that the coaches prepare us in a proper way, so that come Sunday we get the results,” the 29-year-old said.

“I mean it has been 12 years since we qualified for the competition, and as a leader of the team, it is very important that I encourage the guys and tell them it is very important for us to make it to the CHAN tournament, and it will be history with this group of players.

“It is not only just about this game or qualifying, but also about putting our names in the history books, which is important for us in our careers, individually and as a team.”