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South Africans around the world will have their eyes fixed on Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca on Thursday as Bafana Bafana take on hosts Mexico in theopening matchof the 2026 Fifa World Cup. Adding to the occasion, two-time Grammy-award-winning icon Tyla is set to perform the South African national anthem before kickoff, bringing Mzansi flavour to one of the world’s biggest sporting stages. This is one of the many messages of support that hundreds of South Africans have sent to Bafana Bafana as they prepare to face Mexico in the match that kicks off the 2026 Fifa World Cup on Thursday night.

The last time Bafana Bafana played Mexico was during the 2010 Fifa World Cup when Siphiwe Tshabalala scored an opener at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg in front of thousands of fans. Residents of Jumpers informal settlement have described how they mistook gunshots, which rang through the area and left 12 people dead, for fireworks until they heard screaming. Ten other people were wounded in the shooting in east Johannesburg on Tuesday night. The family of a Soweto woman who died inside a toilet cubicle at her place of employment atCartracksay work say they are expecting to meet withon Wednesday in a bid to find answers regarding what led to her death.