Avenging Bafana

Thato Wesley Maredi, is the first  Protea esports player that comes from Tembisa, and is determined to avenge Bafana Bafana in Morocco this month.

With Bafana Bafana unceremoniously exiting CAF in 2025, Thato Wesley Maredi star South African efootball athlete and official Protea team member for the efootball game title, has landed in Casablanca, Morocco to wreak havoc and let slip the dogs of war upon the other participating countries.

Forty-two of the top esports countries are present at ACES Africa eSports Championships are present even though the championships were organised at very short notice. However, the Moroccan government proved to be of great assistance as many nations were only able to apply for their VISAS at the last moment. The South African team only received their VISAS at 14H00 on the day of departure! 

Thato begins battle today, 15 January 2026,  and is facing off against very stiff competition indeed from Ethiopia, Senegal, and Libya. 

Thato is determined to give his best and is determined to carry the South African flag with both pride and honour. When looking at Thato's schedule, Thato will be introduced to international competition through fire as he will be playing three games in only three hours...

Thato's schedule is:

18:45	Ethiopia	Selom Seyfu	vs	Thato Wesley Maredi	South Africa
19:15	South Africa	Thato Wesley Maredi	vs	Mamadou Ndiaye	Senegal
19:45	South Africa	Thato Wesley Maredi	vs	Zuhayr Esam Mohammed Mahnah	Libya

The matches are to be streamed on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPOERO55yWo

eFootball™ is an evolution from KONAMI's "PES" It's an all-new era of digital soccer: "PES" has now evolved into "eFootball™"! And now you can experience the next generation of soccer gaming with "eFootball™"!

Additional reading:

• 2026 Calendar of events
• AEC24 - Champions of all of Africa - Protea Female Counter Strike 2 Esports Team wins AEC24
• AEC24 - Forged in battle - a Counter Strike story...
• Affiliation: Private Clubs
• Affiliation - Procedure to be followed by school clubs affiliating for the 2026 season.
• ACES - Avenging Bafana