Banyana Banyana deserve handsome pay

There was a wonderful welcome for Banyana Banyana on Wednesday at OR Tambo International Airport as they arrived back from Morocco as champions of Africa.

The singing and dancing sea of supporters was a joy to witness and there was a financial boost awaiting Banyana, too, as Sport and Recreation Minister Nathi Mthethwa handed over a cheque worth R5.8 million to the team.

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Added to the R9.2 million promised by the South African Football Association (Safa), this has turned into a handsome payday for the players of the South African women’s national soccer team – with each Banyana player set to walk away with about R650,000.

Mthethwa also yelled from the rooftops about equal pay for Bafana Bafana and Banyana, though whether this materialises – or is even realistic in terms of Safa’s finances – remains to be seen.

At least, on this occasion, Banyana have been rewarded with more than Bafana players were given for merely reaching the quarter-finals of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (R520,000 each).

It is a start and richly deserved for a Banyana team that has won the continental crown for the first time and that next year will play in a second successive Fifa Women’s World Cup Finals, too.

Let the party continue.

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