Unfancied Botswana is on track for its first appearance at the African Cup of Nations while continental heavyweights Cameroon, Ivory Coast and South Africa all won their opening qualifiers on Saturday for the 2012 tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Botswana's national team, nicknamed the Zebras, continued a dream run when it saw off Togo 2-1 in Gaborone to open a six-point lead in Group K over former African champion Tunisia.
A Samuel Eto'o-inspired Cameroon overpowered Mauritius 3-1 and Ivory Coast relied on three of its English Premier League players to cruise past Rwanda 3-0 in Abidjan.
South Africa missed a host of second-half chances and settled for a 2-0 win over Niger.
Jerome Ramatlhakwane hit the winner for surprise package Botswana in the 55th minute, just five minutes after an equalizer from Togo's Serge Fiakpe. Winger Joel Mogorosi had put the home team ahead inside five minutes at the University of Botswana Stadium.
''I have no words to describe my joy,'' said Botswana coach Stanley Tshosane as the unbeaten Zebras claimed a third win in four games.
Botswana has already beaten Tunisia, away, and Chad earlier in the campaign.
Botswana only won its first Cup of Nations qualifying match in 2002 and finished bottom if its qualifying group for the 2010 tournament, behind lowly Mauritania and Benin.
Botswana's position was strengthened when Tunisia, the 2004 African Cup of Nations winner, was held to a 2-2 home draw by Malawi in Rades later on Saturday.
Striker Iso Kanyenda scored with a late penalty as the Malawians rallied from 2-0 down to hand Tunisia another setback in its qualifying effort.
Botswana leads the five-team group with 10 points from four games. Tunisia has four points from three games.
The top two teams in Group K will reach the finals. The group kicked off its qualifiers back in July after Togo was reinstated and added to the original four-team group following a successful appeal against a two-tournament ban.
The group winners and two best second-placed teams from the other 10 groups will also book their places at the finals.
Inter Milan striker Eto'o scored twice in his 100th international appearance as Cameroon made a winning start in Group E with a 3-1 victory in Mauritius.
Eric Tchoupo Moting added the third from the penalty spot as the Indomitable Lions served up victory for former Spain coach Javier Clemente in his first game in charge. Clemente had put pen to paper on his Cameroon contract just days earlier.
Trying to forget its disastrous World Cup campaign, where it lost all three matches, Cameroon takes early charge of Group E. Senegal travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the group's second fixture on Sunday.
Even without Chelsea striker Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast was too strong for Rwanda in their Group H match in Abidjan - giving another new coach, Francois Zahoui, a successful start.
Manchester City's Yaya Toure, Drogba's Chelsea teammate Salomon Kalou and Arsenal's Emmanuel Eboue made up for the big striker's absence to lead the Elephants to a comfortable win. The Ivorians were 3-0 up through Eboue's 25-meter (yard) shot in the 39th minute and cantered home.
The vuvuzelas rang out again at Nelspruit's Mbombela World Cup stadium as South Africa began its campaign by beating Niger 2-0 in its first competitive match under new boss Pitso Mosimane.
Strikers Katlego Mphela and Bernard Parker were on target for Bafana Bafana in the first half, but the host missed a string of chances in the second that would have boosted its goal difference ahead of tough matches against Sierra Leone and defending African champion Egypt later in Group G.
''We created a lot of opportunities and at the end of the day I think we must be disappointed we didn't take our opportunities,'' said South Africa's Everton midfielder Steven Pienaar. ''We are really going to need those goals.''
Egypt and Sierra Leone meet on Sunday.
Also Saturday, Cape Verde began Group A's action with a surprise 1-0 home win over Mali. Sudan beat Congo 2-0 in Group I with a goal in each half from Mudathir El-Taieb and Mohamed Al-Tahir, and Uganda were comfortable 3-0 winners over Angola in Group J.
World Cup finalist Algeria struggled to a 1-1 draw against Tanzania in its Group D opener on Friday as the minnows of African football made their presence felt across the continent.
Tanzania went ahead with a Jerry Tegete goal on 33 minutes. Algeria, semifinalists in the 2010 Cup of Nations earlier this year and 2010 World Cup qualifiers, forced an equalizer through Adlene Guediora just before halftime.
The 2012 African Cup of Nations will feature 14 teams.
The 132-match qualifying competition features 44 countries, split into 11 groups and ends in October 2011.
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AP Sports Writer Jerome Pugmire in Paris and Associated Press Writers Emmanuel Tumanjong in Yaounde, Cameroon and Sello Motseta in Gaborone, Botswana contributed to this report.
