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Carlos Amato writes for Mail & Guardian that the Banyana squad will get an extra R5.8-million to share for their Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) triumph, courtesy of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.
But who knows how such a big pot of money could be rustled up on the fly between a Saturday and a Tuesday. Amato opines that this lavish donation will definitely not make Minister Nathi Mthethwa the national hero he has always been in his own mind. However, it does seriously boost the previously agreed bonus pool of R9.2-million (or R400,000 per player). Even that sum looked decent – until one discovered that fully R8-million of it was covered by the tournament prize money, paid straight from the Confederation of African Football. This means the SA Football Association (Safa) itself has only contributed a modest R1.2-million of its own money to reward Banyana for matching Bafana Bafana’s 1996 Afcon triumph. When Bafana lost in the quarterfinals of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) 2019, they received Safa bonuses of R520,000 each – R120,000 more than Banyana will get for winning the whole tournament. Amato says that Safa needs to adopt true gender pay parity immediately in its national teams. When performance bonuses are factored in, Banyana should be earning much more than Bafana. He points out that Safa is a public asset and, as a matter of principle, its resources should be spent on uplifting and developing the game for both sexes. At the reception function this week, Safa president Danny Jordaan declared his commitment to parity – but said he would have to talk to the sports minister in order to make it happen, which fits into a pattern of Safa buck-passing on the issue. Amato says SA’s wonderful women footballers deserve the respect expressed in equal pay from Safa – right now.
- Read the full original of Carlos Amato’s opinion piece on the above at Mail & Guardian (subscriber access only)
- Read too, Safa under fire to close pay gap between Banyana and Bafana, at SowetanLive
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page