President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on South Africans to rally behind the national soccer team as they are set to participate in the Fifa World Cup for the first time since the country hosted the event in 2010. Bafana Bafana will participate in the opening match against Mexico in Mexico on June 11. “They carry with them the best wishes of more than 62-million South Africans who will be cheering them on at every stage of the tournament,” Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter on Monday. This comes after the Presidency hosted a send-off dinner in Pretoria last week, where Ramaphosa congratulated the team. On Sunday, however, the South African Football Association (Safa) said the team had experienced challenges regarding visas for some players and officials, and as a result the group could not travel to North America on Sunday morning as originally planned. This spurred the department of international relations and co-operation (Dirco) to engage the US to assist the affected players and technical team members to get their visas to travel to the tournament. Sports minister Gayton McKenzie later posted on social media that all Bafana Bafana players had received their visas, saying “outstanding is assistant coach, team doctor, head of security and one analyst. The charter will leave [on Monday]”. This year’s Fifa World Cup will be hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to 19. In his newsletter, Ramaphosa said football was defined by camaraderie, teamwork and sportsmanship. The efforts of all the players in qualifying for the tournament deserved credit and recognition. “I call on all South Africans to rally behind our team and show their support. Let us wear the team colours and fly the flag. It has been a long and difficult journey to transform the fortunes of Bafana Bafana. Credit must go to the department of sport, arts and culture, Safa, the leagues, clubs and sponsors for their commitment to developing local football over many years. The coach and the players deserve our collective recognition,” Ramaphosa said. “Efforts are ongoing to professionalise the sport, develop new talent and promote football as a recreational activity for youth in communities across the country. “Bafana Bafana will be ambassadors for our country and what we stand for. The diversity of the squad and technical team is a reminder to the world that we are a united nation of many races, languages and cultures.” The president said sport had a “tremendous capacity to unite people across the barriers of geography, race, gender and class”. “We remember the iconic moment at the 1995 Rugby World Cup final when President Nelson Mandela walked onto the field wearing a Springbok jersey to congratulate the Bokke,” he reminisced. “That moment has been immortalised in writings, memoirs and film. It captured the spirit of the times, when South Africa’s democracy was barely a year old. The country was energised by the team’s victory, but more so by what it represented to a new nation that was emerging from a deeply divided past.” Ramaphosa said he democracy had matured and is flourishing. “Our constitution has been the supreme law of the land for three decades, and we have embarked on a National Dialogue to chart a new course for our country. We are seeing the signs of an economic recovery and growing confidence in our economic prospects,” the president said. “As we cheer on our team from the stands, at fan zones and in our homes, we should also cheer on ourselves as a country. We should celebrate how far we have come in building a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa. Like Bafana Bafana, we should keep working and striving until we have achieved a country in which all our people can thrive.”