Philadelphia Union centre-back Makhanya and Kaizer Chiefs left-back Cross have yet to feature for the national side but could play on the biggest stage of all after Broos named them in his 26-player selection on Thursday night.
He says although they are uncapped, they are players he has monitored for some time and feels they can add value to the squad.
“We follow all the players and it is a lot of work,” Broos said. “Every Monday, (assistant coach) Helman (Mkhalele) and I are in the office and we go through the list we have – who played, did they play well, and so on. We follow them very closely.
“We were already thinking about calling Olwethu in March (against Panama), but for other reasons he was not there. We still followed him, so we know very well how our players are performing in their teams.”
There are many who have called for Makhanya’s selection for a while given his form in Major League Soccer.
“The performances of Makhanya in America are very good. He is playing every minute with his team. He is a good defender, he is tall, he is powerful — very important things in modern football.”
Broos said Bradley Cross’ inclusion was influenced both by his improvement at club level and concerns over cover at left-back, with Aubrey Modiba missing the second leg of the CAF Champions League final on Sunday as Mamelodi Sundowns lifted the trophy.
“Bradley was with us, I think, two years ago or something (it was 2023),” Broos said. “He suffered a little bit from the level of Chiefs in recent years, but this season things went better for them.
“We also still have a little problem with Modiba, so I had to look at that. Normally there will be no problem for Modiba, but if there should be one, we only had (Samukelo (Kabini) on the left side (of defence).
“That was also a reason why we took Bradley with us, not the only one, but one of them.”
The pair could make their debuts when Bafana Bafana take on a youthful Nicaragua side in Orlando on Friday night before heading to their Mexican base for the tournament in Pachuca.
Bafana face co-hosts Mexico in the tournament opener on June 11, before further Group A clashes with Czech Republic in Atlanta (June 18) and South Korea in Monterrey (June 24).