Sepana Letsoalo scored a hat-trick as South Africa booked a place in the Cosafa Cup semi-finals with 4-0 mauling of Lesotho at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium.
Bloemfontein Celtic’s Letsoalo struck twice in the first half and then netted again early in the second period as Bafana ran out comfortable winners.
Mamelodi Sundowns’ Sphelele Mkhulise scored the other goal with the home team progressing to the last four after a third consecutive win in the group stages.
Bafana went on the attack early and took the lead in the fifth minute when a Sifiso Ngobeni cross found his club teammate Letsoalo who buried his header.
The hosts extended their lead in the 20th minute when Mkhulise was the first to react after Nyiko Mobbie’s powerful shot was parried by Lesotho goalkeeper Jersey Matsie.
Bafana were dominating proceedings and almost came close to a third goal but a free-kick from Monnapule Saleng hit the cross-bar in the 41st minute.
It mattered little though as Letsoalo grabbed his second goal of the afternoon on the stroke of halftime with a deft chip over Matsie.
Letsoalo netted his hat-trick in the 57th minute with a simple tap-in finish following a square ball from Thabani Dube.
Bafana then comfortably saw out the game and marched on to an easy victory and reach the last four with one game in the group, against Zambia on Wednesday, still to spare.