Mabizela was first called to the South Africa national team by Carlos Queiroz in November 2001 after only 3 months of PSL experience as a late replacement to Nasief Morris for a friendly match against Egypt, against who he made his debut as a right-back. He had a poor performance as a right-back during the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations and was left out of the 2002 FIFA World Cup squad coached by Jomo Sono. He was recalled in September 2002 by Ephraim Mashaba as a centre-back, earning back his place in the international squad and in June 2003 he was the youngest captain ever for the national team with the age of 22.