South Africa won the three-horse race on Tuesday night from African qualifying Group C for a place at next year's World Cup with a 3-0 victory over Rwanda as pacesetters Benin lost 4-0 in Nigeria. .
Going into the final round of games, Benin, second-placed South Africa and Nigeria in third all had the chance to advance to the tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
With a two-point advantage over South Africa, Benin simply needed to match South Africa's result while Nigeria had to beat Benin by at least two goals and hope Rwanda held South Africa to a draw.
But it was South Africa who clinched the berth with their win in front of delirious partisans at the Mbombela Stadium.
In the prelude to the game, the South Africa boss Hugo Broos said his team needed to beat Rwanda and then pray for a miracle.
Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen emerged as that godsend. The 26-year-old struck twice in the first-half and completed his hat trick shortly after the pause to end Benin's dream. Frank Onyeka racked up the fourth in stoppage-time.
Goals within the first half hour from Thalente Mbatha and Oswin Appolis settled South Africa's nerves and Evidence Makgopa added the gloss with just under 20 minutes remaining to send South Africa to the World Cup for the first time since they were hosts in 2010.
"It's wonderful," Broos told South African broadcaster SABC after the victory as fireworks exploded around the stadium. "We all knew that we could do it. We believed in ourselves.
"You could see from the beginning that the players wanted to win that game.
"The only thing that could stop us was what was happening in Nigeria ... but Nigeria did what they had to do and we did what we had to do. So we're going to the World Cup. It's fantastic."
Nigeria's victory pushed them up into the runners-up spot with 17 points.
