Banyana Banyana players who made the final cut to the squad that will represent South Africa at the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup tournament have offered their teammates who were chopped from the team a share of the spoils.
Safa and Banyana were involved in a bonus dispute ahead of the team’s departure to Australia/New Zealand where the World Cup will be playing.
On Wednesday, Safa and the Minister of Sports Zizi Kodwa confirmed that the Motsepe Foundation, run by the SA mining billionaire Patrice Motsepe, rescued the situation with a R6 million windfall for Banyana bonuses at the World Cup.
Dr. Precious Moloi-Motsepe rubber-stamped the whole deal and said that girls were a bunch of champions and that sport had the power to unite people.
Fifa has confirmed that all 23 Banyana players are guaranteed ($30 000) R560 000 by virtue of qualifying for the competition.
The Motsepe Foundation has added a cherry on top with a R230 000 for each player, which means that the girls will get R800 000. The technical team staff, that never gets recognition, will each get R115 000.
But coach Desiree Ellis’ players have shown a kind gesture to their three teammates that were eliminated when the final team was cut from 26 players to the final 23.
A certain percentage will be shared with the players that had to be left out of the squad. The players also argued for their coaches and support team to get the R115 000 for their efforts.
All these figures are likely to be augmented by Kodwa’s department of sports and also in the form of other cash bonuses from the sponsors and provincial departments.
SA president Cyril Ramaphosa also gave the girls a big cash injection after they won the Wafcon in Morocco last year.
“These are champions, and we have to treat them as such, they deserve it. It’s very important that they feel the support they deserve,” said Dr. Moloi-Motsepe.
“When the Motsepe Foundation was requested to assist in resolving the dispute, we thought this was an important matter because sports has that ability to unite all of us.
“But, for me, personally, it’s really about this moment we’re facing again, of paying lip service to gender equality. We end up here because we do not do what we say we will do, it’s mostly rhetoric – we talk about it, and when it comes to doing, we really fall short.”
Banyana first batch of players left the country for the World Cup on Wednesday and the rest of the team will fly out of Mzansi on Thursday. They open their campaign against Sweden on July 23.
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