Dr. Moloi-Motsepe blasts gender equality 'lip service' after Banyana Banyana's bonus row with SAFA

This was during Wednesday’s press conference where it was jointly announced with the Department of Sports, Arts, and Culture (DSAC) that R6-million extra funding would be contributed towards Banyana Banyana’s bonuses for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Moloi-Motsepe said this is an area most organisations, without explicitly mentioning SAFA, have to improve on as she explained the easy decision of stepping in when contacted by the DSAC and SAFA during Tuesday’s negotiations.

"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 by the Ministry of Sports, Arts, and Culture and SAFA to assist in resolving the dispute between SAFA and Banyana Banyana, we thought this was an important matter of unity 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."

The South African Football Players Union (SAFPU) were instrumental in these negotiations when they were approached by the Banyana leadership last week, and president Thulaganyo Gaoshubelwe confirmed their role in also negotiating bonuses for the 18 support staff members.

"They [Banyana], including the other [three stand-by players] that were not going to share the World Cup money [$30 000], will each get about R230 000," confirmed Gaoshubelwe.

"We've confirmed that with the president of the association, so what's left is to put those things into a document that we'll call an annexure.

"But it's not only that, I said we have represented staff, which [we agreed] that 50% of the R230 000 would be R115 000 that they will get – we've raised that, and there would have been confirmation. All that's left is for it to be actioned."