Motsepe Foundation resolves Safa, Banyana issues with R6 million donation

Thanks to the Motsepe Foundation, the dispute between the South African Football Association (Safa) and Banyana Banyana players has been resolved, with the foundation donating R6 million to help out in player bonuses for the team going to the Fifa Women’s World Cup.

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The Foundation has stepped in to resolve the issue between the association and players after a messy row this past weekend.

Banyana players had financial demands from the association, but the latter said they could not meet them.

This led to the Word Cup-bound players not partaking in the friendly match between them and Botswana at Tsakane Stadium on Sunday and having to ask the South African Players Union (Safpu) to intervene.

Banyana were also not happy with playing at Tsakane Stadium, which is not Fifa accredited and wanted to have a signed agreement on bonuses with Safa.

Safa were forced to organise other players to make a team and honour the match just an hour before kick-off.

But, the weekend’s incident is all in the past thanks to the Motsepe Foundation and its co-founder Precious Motsepe.

Already each player is expected to get over R500 000 from Fifa for playing at the tournament.

“These are our champions, they sweat and they bleed for us. We need to treat them as such (champions). We pay lip service to gender-based violence, we talk about these things at all levels and these are issues that are faced by all our players. Banyana are going to the World Cup and we should all be proud,” said Motsepe.

Meanwhile, Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Zizi Kodwa was also happy to see the situation being resolved.

Kodwa says now the country needs to be behind Banyana and give them all the support they need.

“We are glad to have been able to resolve this matter. Our players are happy with everything that has been put on the table for them. They now need to focus on the games coming because they will be looking to make the country proud,” said Kodwa.

“Now they need all the support they can get from all South Africans. We want them to make us proud at the tournament.”

Meanwhile, adding to the R6 million donated by Motsepe Foundation, Ithuba National Lottery also came on board to help out the team by contributing R2 million.

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The team is leaving for Australia and New Zealand in two groups. The first group will depart on Wednesday, and the rest of the team will leave on Thursday.