In less than 8 days, one of Africa’s biggest tournaments will be held in South Africa, the event will host all of the 16 nations (South Africa, Ghana, Mali, Zambia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Cape Verde, Morocco, Togo, Niger, Angola, Algeria, Congo DR, and Burkina Faso) that qualified for the Nations Cup.
The Opening Ceremony fully intends to live up to the theme "Celebrate Africa - The Beat at Africa's Feat". It promises to be a dazzling spectacular of African pride, already, Rehearsals for the event boast a cast of over 520 dancers, singers, stilt walkers and gymnasts and Nigerian international star D’banj is set to perform at the event.

The opening ceremony for the 29th edition of this prestigious competition starts at 16:00 on January 19, it precedes the kick-off match between hosts South Africa vs Cape Verde, the match will be held at Johannesburg's FNB Stadium which is still familiar to global football fans as Soccer City, South Africa's flagship 2010 World Cup stadium. South African sports Minister Fikile Mbalula released venues for rest of the matches last Friday: the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, and the Mboembela Stadium in Nelspruit.

South Africa had been due to host Africa's most important football tournament in 2017, but the date was moved forward to 2013 after political unrest in Libya, which was originally scheduled to host next year's event.