South Africa, playing for their Confederations Cup lives at the Royal Bafokeng stadium built on revenue from the local platinum mines, dug themselves out of deep trouble last night with a resounding 2-0 win over New Zealand.

After their limp opening draw Joel Santana's 'Bafana Bafana' finally tapped into a rich seam of form with goals either side of half-time from Bernard Parker.

This was sweet redemption for the Serb-based striker for it was he who had inadvertently blocked Kagisho Dikgacoi's goal-bound header against Iraq on Sunday.

The result in front of a near capacity 40,000 crowd boosted the 2010 World Cup hosts' prospects of qualifying for the semi-finals as Group A runners-up behind Spain.

While the permutations are plenty, South Africa, with four points, will guarantee qualification if they get a draw on Saturday with Spain - by no means inconceivable if they repeat this level of performance - irrespective of how Iraq fare against New Zealand.

If they lose and the Iraqis beat New Zealand then it will come down to goal difference.

After their nervy curtain-raiser this was a far livelier South Africa and part of the reason for that was the return from injury of Everton playmaker Steven Pienaar.

The South Africans turned up at the stadium dancing and singing and the party mood spilled over onto the pitch as they ran rings round New Zealand for much of the game.

South Africa could have tripled or quadrupled their advantage in the closing stages but for some sloppy finishing and some desperate defending by the hapless champions from Oceania whose sorry Confederations Cup record now reads seven games with no return.