South Africa face the bizarre possibility of having two national coaches at the same time.

The country's football association confirmed they will announce a new coach next week - despite current boss Jomo Sono remaining in charge until the end of the Cosafa Cup.

In what is probably some sort of world first, Sono will coach South Africa's next match in the regional tournament, at home to Swaziland in Polokwane on 24 August, even though his replacement would already have been appointed.

The new coach, to be selected from a shortlist of five candidates named earlier this week, will be named either Wednesday or Thursday next week, Safa have confirmed.

The new coach's first job will be the African Nations Cup qualifier away to Ivory Coast in Abidjan on 8 September.

Two of the original seven candidates - Styles Phumo and Gordon Igesund - have already pulled out of the race.

But if Sono succeeds in beating Swaziland in the semifinals of the Cosafa Cup, he will stay on for the final, which is to be played over two legs at the end of September.

South Africa will then be running two teams in parallel with one another; the new coach in charge of the CAN 2004 campaign and Sono, who was the coach at the World Cup last month, handling a side, mainly made of locally-based players, in the annual southern African championship.

The thinking, say South African officials, is to allow Sono to finish his commitment to continue with the tournament, which he made after returning from the World Cup.

It will also take the pressure off the new man, who could face a tough Cosafa Castle Cup final against Zambia just weeks before the second nations Cup qualifier of the year - at home to Burundi in Bloemfontein in mid-October.

The kid gloves approach contrasts strongly with previous coach Carlos Queiroz's first assignment - the Portuguese trainer's first match in charge of South Africa was against world champions France in September 2000.