Before this game, much of South Africa's media were writing off their team's chances of making the quarter-finals.

But after a superb performance in which Morocco were simply blown away, no-one should be surprised if they win the tournament.

Sibusiso Zuma, who scored South Africa's first goal said the team were confident of a good perfomance against the North Africans.

"We knew we were going to put it together, and we've been working very hard, even meeting late at night. Today was the perfect day to get it together."

He was involved in all three of South Africa's goals, setting up the first two and scoring the third.

On the ball he was electric, taking on players with ease and laying on some delicate and incisive passes.

South Africa had failed to score in their previous two matches, but a more attacking approach to this game paid dividends which puts them top of the group.

But for the first half an hour Bafana Bafana looked as if they were heading towards another goalless draw.

They needed a win to go through to the next stage, but looked uninspired and lacklustre.

First goal

But all that changed when coach Carlos Queiroz brought on Nomvete as a substitute for Delron Buckley.

The Italian-based player provided the first goal after 10 minutes with a dribbling run down the left, a neat cut back inside, and a cross to Benni McCarthy who shot from close range.

McCarthy's effort was parried by Morocco goalkeeper Driss Benzerki, but Zuma was there for the rebound and bundled the ball over the goal line.

Straight after the break Nomvete did it again.

South Africa's third was set up by Benni McCarthy, who laid up a golden opportunity for Nomvete after a good run down the left.

Nomvete drove the ball into the back of the net from close range.

South Africa's coach Carlos Queiroz was delighted with the perfomance.

"This is exactly what we needed, to give confidence and self-esteem to the players. The next match is about us. Today was the beginning of something".

Poor defence

Morocco pulled one back through a Rachid Benmahmoud's penalty after Zuma brought down Adil Ramzi in the penalty area, but they never looked in danger of troubling the South Africans.

Going into this round of games they were leading the group, and even with a loss could still have gone through to the quarter-finals.

Even at the end of the match they were unaware of the dramatic events in the other group game between Ghana and Burkina Faso, which ended their hopes.

Morocco's defence let them down badly.

They looked slow, and even the vastly experienced Nourredine Naybet was out of sorts and tactically naive.

South Africa now travel to Kayes to face the hosts of the Nations Cup, Mali, in Sunday's quarter-final.