The 30-year-old completed the 65 kilometres course in Benslimane in 1 hour 45min 15sec, with Mauritius' Aurelie Halbwachs second and Namibia's Vera Adrian third.

"Through the grace of God I really feel honoured to have won the African Games road race," Matthee was reported as saying by In the Bunch.

"I felt each and every prayer coming from South Africa.

"This victory is huge for me and team South Africa, more importantly. 

"We need the UCI (International Cycling Union) points and we got them."

Jarryd Gibson and Louis Hattingh added more gold for South Africa by coming out on top in the men's K2 1,000 metres event in 3min 21.316sec.

Tunisia's Outail Khatali and Mohamed Ali Mrabet were runners-up in 3:27.145, while Egypt's Ahmed Elbedwihy and Amr Abouzeid came third in 3:41.462.

Mrabet had earlier claimed victory in the men's K1 1,000m event in 3:30.033.

Hattingh was the silver medallist in 3:31.603 and Algeria's Oussama Djabali took bronze in 3:50.311.

Tunisia's Ghailene Khattali won the men's C1 1,000m event in 4:09.494, ahead of São Tomé and Príncipe's Buly Da Conceição Triste in 4:11.701 and Angola's Sanda Benilson in 4:12.964.

Da Conceição Triste later teamed up with Roque Fernandes Dos Ramos to win the men's C2 1,000m event in 4:03.135.

Angola's Manuel José Miego António and Aldair Domingos Paulo Neto finished second in 4:05.278, while Tunisia's Mohamed Seifallah Kendaoui and Khattali were third in 4:10.612.

Morocco's Houssam El Kord and Egypt's Nada Atawia came away with fencing gold medals.

El Kord beat Egypt's Ahmed Salah 15-14 in the men's individual épée final, while Atawia defeated fellow Egyptian Nour Hassaballah 15-8 in the women's individual sabre final.

Egypt's Mohammed Yasseen and Mauritius' Satyadev Gunput were the men's individual épée bronze medallists.

Sharing third place in the women's individual sabre event were Egypt's Lina Aly and the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Jeanne Fribault.

It was a successful day for Egypt in gymnastics as they won three gold medals.

Nancy Taman triumphed in the women's vault with 12.833 points, Farah Hussein in the women's uneven bars with 12.566 and Ali Zahran in the men's rings with 14.300.

Algeria's Ahmed Anis Maoudj took the men's floor exercise title with 13.533 points and Nigeria's Uche Devon Eke prevailed in the men's pommel horse with 13.500.

Nigeria strengthened their position at the top of the athletics medal standings with a further three gold medals.

Kelechi Nwanaga earned gold in the women's javelin with a throw of 55.88m, Tobi Amusan took the women's 100m hurdles title in 12.68 and the women's 4x100m relay team won gold in 44.16.

They are followed in the rankings by Kenya, who achieved the men's and women's 20km race walk double today thanks to Samuel Gathimba and Emily Wamusyi Ngii. 

Gathimba clocked a time of 1:22:48, while Ngii posted 1:34:41.