President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday that his government would move to ensure the introduction of a law that bans discriminatory pay between men and women for the same job.
Speaking during the national Women’s Day celebrations at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, Ramaphosa said women were also disproportionately responsible for unpaid care work.
“It is in this area where we say there must be equal pay for equal work. And women can no longer be paid lower than men for the same work that they do,” he said.
Ramaphosa said salary disparities were inherently unjust and unfair, citing as an example the issue of underpaid players on the women’s national football team, Banyana Banyana.
“We saw that last year when the women won the African Cup of Nations. And in the end, we found that they were being paid less than the men”. He said he remained steadfast in his call for equality of payment between men and women at that level.
“In fact, right now, I’m sure you will all join me. They should actually be getting more paid because they perform better than our men,” he said.
He was referring to the feat of the women’s football team Banyana Banyana, which recently qualified for the knockout stages of the Women’s World Cup.
The team were eliminated from the tournament on Sunday morning after the loss to the Netherlands. However, the men’s football team has never achieved knockout stage qualification.
Ramahosa lamented that the South African economy remained dominated by men and that more women were unemployed than men.
“When you look at our unemployment figures, you find that it is more women who are unemployed than men. And this has become, and is a priority for our government”, he said.
“Women are more likely to work part-time, they are more likely to be unskilled and semi-skilled. And they get much lower pay than men,” he added.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa.
