The drama at the troubled South African Football Association (Safa) seems to be nowhere near ending as the Amajita team has come out to say that it is still waiting for a response on whether it will get something for winning the Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations.
Upon arrival from Egypt after Amajita’s historic 1-0 win over Morocco in the final to be crowned champions, Safa president Danny Jordaan said at that time that the association would sit down and decide how it would divide the money amongst the players once received from CAF.
“We haven’t received any money from CAF yet. And when we have the money, we will decide [how it’s divided],” Jordaan said during the Amajita homecoming at the OR Tambo International Airport last month.
However, since then, according to some of the players who did not want to be mentioned due to fears of victimisation, there has been no communication on whether they will still
receive a portion of the prize money, which is believed to be in the region of R4-million.
“Unfortunately, we did not receive anything from Safa officials because they told us that junior national teams do not receive a salary based on Fifa standards. But we did our research, and we discovered that there are bonuses or some financial reward that should be given out based on the success of the team,” said one anonymous player.
“We have won the competition, so the least the association can do is give us something from that prize money and show more appreciation to us for being able to restore the pride of our junior national team.
“So, we are still waiting for communication from Safa officials on whether they will divide some of the money amongst them (the team), as promised. The only things we received were the medals and our jerseys.”
Some of the issues, which were raised at a recent heated portfolio committee on sports, arts, and culture were coach Raymond Mdaka’s low salary and not receiving a bonus, and the U20 team travelling to Mozambique by bus late last year for the Cosafa Championship.
“That bus trip to Mozambique was long and exhausting. It was embarrassing. We were so tired, but because we knew what we wanted to achieve at the end of the day, we went, fought, and won the competition.
“But it has been tough being a junior national team player because even before the Afcon, we were staying at a Fun Valley camp that did not have water for days,” added another player who opted to remain anonymous.
Early this year, this publication broke the news that the Safa Fun Valley Resort did not have running water when Amajita reported for camp in March in preparation for the Afcon.
The borehole water pump at the resort had been inoperative for two months, resulting in an unbearable stench inside the premises. Sunday World has since tried reaching out to Safa CEO Lydia Monyepao to comment on the matter, but she was not available on the phone by the time the story went out for print.
