Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has found a use for the luckless Bafana Bafana ? clearing rubble on building sites ahead of the 2010 World Cup, with no pay.

And they should be joined, he suggested to the National Assembly in his budget speech on Wednesday, by the Proteas.

His jibe follows President Thabo Mbeki's rebuke in his State of the Nation address two weeks ago, in which the president said the national soccer team's performance at the Africa Cup of Nations, where they did not score a single goal, "did nothing to advertise our strengths as a winning nation".

Bafana Bafana were booed when they arrived back home at Johannesburg International Airport.

Manuel told MPs on Wednesday that the 2006 budget included a contribution to the government's investment commitments for the Soccer World Cup, which is to be played in South Africa.

The government would spend up to R5-billion in dedicated infrastructure for the competition, of which R3-billion was set aside over the next three fiscal years.

"I understand that both the national football side and the cricket team have volunteered to do unpaid clearing of building rubble," he quipped.

"There are no joys without the nightmares that precede them," he added, in reference to a poem by Ben Okri he had quoted at the beginning of his speech.

The Proteas recently returned from a patchy series in Australia, coming third to Australia and Sri Lanka in a one-day triangular series.