Banyana Banyana were crowned Wafcon champions this weekend after defeating Morocco.
So 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. Who knows how such a big pot of money can be rustled up on the fly between a Saturday and a Tuesday. Perhaps it came from Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s special budget for reflected-glory hunting.
This lavish donation will definitely not make 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 you 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 South African 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. This from an association that splurged R9-million on a fleet of Mercedes-Benzes for its provincial administrators in the aftermath of the 2010 World Cup. Because provincial administrators can’t be seen dead in Toyotas or Hyundais like ordinary humans.
Yes, of course times have changed financially for Safa since those halcyon days of endless fancy functions and limos. But there is a causal link between the vainglorious wastefulness of then and the shambolic cheapness of now.
And then there’s the naked sexism of that cheapness. To use but one telling example – Banyana reportedly fly economy, while Bafana fly business class.
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 damn tournament.
At the 2019 Women’s World Cup finals, Banyana were incentivised with the same bonus structure as Bafana at the Afcon that year. That nominal parity looked good, until you considered that the women were competing against the whole world and not just against Africa. Reaching an Afcon quarterfinal is not an equivalent achievement to reaching a World Cup quarterfinal. They should have got more.
We’ve really seen enough of this nonsense now. 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 for their work on country duty. With the honourable exception of Mamelodi Sundowns’s exploits in African competition, the men’s game in South Africa has meandered into rampant mediocrity since 2010.
Bafana usually don’t even qualify for Afcon finals, let alone compete for medals. Banyana have reached and lost five Wafcon finals prior to this win.
The last World Cup Bafana qualified for legitimately was 20 years ago – whereas Banyana have qualified for two World Cup finals on the bounce.
But maybe the glaring performance gap between the two sides is irrelevant. 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. The fact that Banyana are so competitive on the international stage – and thus readily able to convert financial support into silverware – is just a bonus.
At the OR Tambo reception bash this week, Safa president Danny Jordaan loudly declared his commitment to parity – but said he would have to talk to the sports minister in order to make it happen. This fits into a pattern of Safa buck-passing on the issue. In late 2020, the body’s then spokesperson Dominic Chimhavi said Safa was keen on introducing parity but blamed private-sector sponsors for delaying this by favouring the men’s game.
“It is something that is a work in progress but also at the moment is determined by what is put in the coffers for the two respective teams. It is an issue that needs collectivity in the sense that the corporate world continues to pour money into the men’s game and not the women’s game.”
It’s true enough that corporates should be piling into the women’s game, for their own strategic reasons, as well as for the sake of fairness and development. But Safa cannot wait for them; the association must lead by example, by cross-subsidising where necessary, and by setting up a fully-fledged commercial arm dedicated to drumming up backers for the women’s national side.
Sasol has long backed Banyana but other SA corporates will catch on quickly enough now. The participation rate of girls in football is rocketing all over the world – in a decade from now, all those girls will be football-loving adult consumers with spending power, and they will remember which brands backed their passion.
Anyone who has watched this summer’s Wafcon and Euro 22 finals can see the burgeoning quality and appeal of the women’s game. The tactics are adventurous, the skills and goals are stellar – and the culture of professional maturity and respect for opponents and officials is in stark contrast to the cheating, bitchiness and performative self-pity that still mar the men’s game.
In Europe, the ever-rising standard of women’s leagues due to the spike in investment by major clubs is already attracting huge crowds. Massive arenas like the Nou Camp, in Barcelona, Spain, are being filled by women’s league fixtures. The live experience is much more affordable than the men’s game, with a warmer, more festive, less aggressive atmosphere.
It’s unlikely that the South African women’s league can emulate the crowd boom happening in countries like Spain, France and England. Local fans barely go to stadiums for men’s football anymore, barring a derby or two per year. And we’ve never really had the match-going fan culture that abounds in other countries.
However, we can be very sure of two things: one, that South African women’s football will routinely produce wonderful footballers. And two, that they deserve the respect expressed in equal pay from Safa – right now.
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