The road to the next Afcon in Morocco next year will start next month, but Bafana Bafana and 43 other nations will wait a little longer before they know their opponents for the qualifiers.
The qualification process will start with a preliminary round involving eight of the lowest-ranked nations, as per the Fifa rankings.
READ: 'The way I see football makes people angry' - Hugo Broos
CAF conducted the draw for the preliminary qualifiers on Tuesday, which will feature two-legged fixtures involving Somalia, Djibouti, Sao Tome, Chad, Mauritius, South Sudan, Liberia and Eswatini.
The matches will be played on a home and away basis during the Fifa window of 18–26 March.