South Africa have begun their campaign in Africa to stage the 2010 World Cup by meeting with Caf president Issa Hayatou.

A delegation led by Safa president Molefi Oliphant met Hayatou at Caf's headquarters in Cairo on Thursday.

They were meeting ahead of the official worldwide campaign launch, which will be at Bafana Bafana's friendly match with England in May.

"We have formally started lobbying and we also met with other influential administrators in Africa," Oliphant confirmed.

"We felt it was right to start mobilising in Africa."

South Africa is one of six African countries bidding to host the finals, the others being Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Nigeria.