Ernie Els stamped his authority on the Alfred Dunhill Championship with an eight-under-par round of 64 to open up a two-shot lead going into the final.
The world number five equalled the best round of the week so far, shot by Dutchman Joost Luiten earlier in the day at the Leopard Creek Country Club, to head the field from English trio Lee Slattery, Ross McGowan and John Bickerton.
Slattery, who shot a 65 on Friday, managed a five-under-par round of 67, two better than his countrymen.
Luiten was three shots further back on six under par alongside overnight leader Omar Sandys, who had a disappointing round that included two double bogeys.
Darren Clarke managed a solid two-under-par round of 70 to go with his 73 and 69 and leave him four under.
It was home favourite Els though who showed his class on a wet day in Malelane.
He said: "That's the round I've been looking for a while. I played well and I said yesterday I felt good about my game, but was disappointed with my finish.
"But today was a good day. I started of with two birdies and had so many other chances. The start was really nice and kind of settled me down a little bit. I played really nice, hit the driver nice and my overall game was really good today."
Slattery admitted that overhauling Els on the final day may need something special.
He said: "Obviously 64 (from Els) is a good score today. I went out this morning thinking anything under par would keep me in it for the tournament. But you never know with Ernie.
"He's one of these guys who can shoot that score and win the tournament quite comfortably. But if he goes out tomorrow and shoots a good score then I'm going to have to shoot a really good one."
"So it's nice to really be the only one to be in touch with him."
The 21-year-old Luiten's round included a stunning hole-in-one at the 192-yard par three 12th.
He said. "It landed on the green perfectly and just rolled in the hole.
"Eight under is a great score and maybe if I do it again tomorrow I have got a chance," added Luiten, who won a brand new Audi TT Roadster for his efforts.
There was also a hole-in-one at the par three 16 from England's Oliver Wilson and his reward was 190 cases of Terra Del Capo wine.
Collated third round scores & totals in the Europen Tour Alfred Dunhill Championship, Leopard Creek GC, Mpumalanga, South Africa
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
203 Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 69 64
205 Lee Slattery 73 65 67
207 John Bickerton 70 69 68, Ross McGowan 71 69 67
210 Joost Luiten (Ned) 75 71 64, Omar Sandys (Rsa) 68 68 74
211 Craig Lee 68 71 72, Titch Moore (Rsa) 71 68 72, David Dixon 72 72 67
212 Richard Bland 69 70 73, Hennie Otto (Rsa) 75 69 68, Oliver Wilson 73 71 68, Keith Horne (Rsa) 74 70 68, Darren Clarke 73 69 70
213 David Carter 72 71 70, Sion Bebb 67 72 74, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 74 66 73, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 70 75 68
214 Klas Eriksson (Swe) 74 71 69, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 77 67 70, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 70 70 74, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 75 71 68, Robert Rock 73 72 69, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 72 73 69, Wallie Coetsee (Rsa) 72 71 71, Trevor Fisher Jnr (Rsa) 74 72 68, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 74 70 70
215 Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 72 70 73, Gary Boyd 72 71 72, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 70 74 71, Luis Claverie (Spa) 74 70 71, Grant Veenstra (Rsa) 73 70 72, Julio Zapata (Arg) 77 69 69
216 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 76 67 73, Anton Haig (Rsa) 71 71 74, Benn Barham 72 71 73, Chris Swanepoel (Rsa) 73 73 70, Doug McGuigan 74 67 75, George Coetzee (Rsa) 69 72 75, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 72 73 71
217 Gary Clark 71 72 74, Magnus Carlsson (Swe) 72 71 74, Adilson Da Silva (Bra) 73 73 71, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 75 69 73, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 75 70 72, Simon Dyson 75 68 74, Philip Golding 72 72 73, Alan Michell (Rsa) 72 73 72, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 75 71 71
218 Martin Wiegele (Aut) 74 71 73, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 74 70 74, Chris Williams (Rsa) 74 69 75, Dion Fourie (Rsa) 72 71 75, Stuart Manley 71 72 75, Stephen Browne 70 71 77
219 David Drysdale 73 72 74, Ross Fisher 76 70 73, Alan McLean 75 71 73
220 Peter Whiteford 71 72 77
221 Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 77 67 77, Michiel Bothma (Rsa) 78 67 76, Sven Struver (Ger) 72 73 76
222 James Kingston (Rsa) 71 74 77, Tyrone Van Aswegen (Rsa) 75 70 77
225 Kevin Stone (Rsa) 73 71 81, Rossouw Loubser (Rsa) 74 71 80
