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JOHANNESBURG. — The 1996 African Cup of Nations was not supposed to take place in South Africa.

Kenya were the designated hosts but 14 months before the tournament they pulled out, saying it would cost six times more than they had expected. So in November 1994, the Confederation of African Football had to look elsewhere.

Earlier that year, in April, Nelson Mandela had been elected president in the first democratic elections in South Africa’s history.

The country’s football team had only recently returned to the international stage, being re-admitted to FIFA following the formation of a new multi-racial football association in 1991 as the apartheid system began to be demolished.

South Africa were chosen as replacement hosts. But they were never expected to win it. In fact, early results after their 1991 readmission were so bad they reduced their FA’s general-secretary Solomon Morewa to tears.

The African Cup of Nations (AFCON) would be different. The transformative events of the 1990s that dismantled more than three centuries of white rule in South Africa also swept up football with its unstoppable momentum.

The story of the country’s astonishing Rugby World Cup win as hosts in 1995 is well known.

But according to those who represented the young democracy in the Afcon of 1996, this victory had an even bigger impact.

Cameroon were South Africa’s first opponents. On January 13, 1996, they met at Soccer City stadium just outside Soweto, where 20 years earlier thousands of students had protested against white-minority rule, with hundreds killed in the police response.

Neil Tovey was 33. A defender with domestic side Kaizer Chiefs, he had made his international debut just after his 30th birthday, in July 1992. That was in his country’s first match as a multi-racial, truly national team – which also happened to be against Cameroon and which they won 1-0.

“If prior to the tournament you’d asked the team and me if we could win it, I don’t know if we would have said we could,” Tovey tells the BBC World Service’s World Football podcast.

“The fans and us players didn’t have any experience of international tournament football. But progressing through the competition, the country just came alive.”

The day before their opening match President Mandela, whose clan name was Madiba, made the first of several visits to the team.

Lucas Radebe, then of Leeds United, was another in the South Africa squad. For him, meeting Mandela was almost like a religious experience.

“When we were growing up, we never knew what his face looked like,” he says.

“We had an old picture of him when he was young, but when he came to see us in camp, that’s when there was ‘Madiba Magic’. He had such a great aura. We didn’t know what to say.

“That day, if we’d come across Brazil, we would have beaten them. That’s how much we were inspired. His presence catapulted us to the highest level, where every game we played, we were playing for Madiba and South Africa.”

“Madiba Magic’’ was the concept of Mandela acting as a good luck charm for sports teams. It was born on 10 May 1994 – the day of Mandela’s inauguration – when South Africa beat Zambia for the first time, with the new president in attendance.

It seemed to be working again. Cameroon were beaten 3-0 and the tone was set for what was to come. Leeds’ Phil Masinga opened the scoring just 24 hours after landing from England.

According to ex-Charlton striker Shaun Bartlett, as South Africa won their group and moved into the quarter-finals they became known as Madiba’s Boys.

“Even now, just talking about the great man Mandela gives me goosebumps,” he says. “Every time we met him, shaking his hand, it was like he gave something to you.

“The only downside was that you had to wake up at half past four in the morning, because he was still in that routine from when he was in prison. He woke up early and went for a walk. So we had to wake up to meet him at five.”

But South Africa were not crowned African champions just because of a wave of emotion, or because of some kind of otherworldly power. They could also play, and were coached well by Clive Barker.

“He found the qualities in each player and let them do what made them good,” says Tovey, who with 29 appearances was his nation’s most-capped player.

Going into the tournament, they were on a 13-match unbeaten run which included draws against Germany and Argentina.

Added to that good form was the European experience of Radebe and Phil Masinga at Leeds, and Wolves striker Mark Williams. Defender Mark Fish was being watched by Manchester United and would later that year sign for Lazio, before joining Bolton in 1997.

And after the rugby team’s extraordinary victory the previous year, which unified a nation behind a largely white side, there was something to live up to.

“That was one of the goals we spoke about,” says Tovey.

“We knew that our role was also to play a part in bringing our country together, and Madiba knew that us doing well would increase the togetherness in the country.

“The euphoria around the rugby team winning was still only 10 percent of what it could get to if we achieved the same result.” — BBC Sport Africa.