OPINION: Banyana full value for incentives

There is a national football team to be proud of in South Africa, and it’s called Banyana Banyana.

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While Bafana Bafana have done little but disappoint a nation over the past two decades and more, the women’s senior national team have grown into a major force on the African continent, a rise finally rewarded with a Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) title on Saturday night in Rabat.

Banyana will rightly get a heroes’ welcome when they arrive at OR Tambo International Airport this morning, even if it will no doubt also be accompanied by vomit-worthy grandstanding from government officials and ministers who have had nothing to do with their success.

Videos of the post-final celebrations, featuring some legendary dancing, could only have failed to bring a smile to the face of the most cold-hearted soul.

This is a team as likeable as they are successful and every one of them deserve the R400 000 (and possibly more) per player promised to them by South African Football Association president Danny Jordaan. Banyana have brought R8.4 million into Safa by winning the Wafcon and more prestige and cash will follow, when they participate in the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup finals in Australia and New Zealand next year.

Banyana’s challenge now is to make more of an impression on the global game. At their first World Cup appearance in 2019, they put up a decent show in an extremely tough group, containing Germany, Spain and China, with a quite wonderful Thembi Kgatlana strike even giving them a lead against Spain. But Desiree Ellis’ team ultimately lost all three matches.

Still, Banyana will have learned from the experience, and will go into the World Cup with their confidence given a huge boost by this continental success. If Banyana were not always at their best in Morocco, they certainly saved their best for when it was needed, in the opening match against Nigeria, and in the final, with an opening goal that picked the Atlas Lionesses to shreds.

South Africa will also hope for a more favourable draw for next year’s World Cup, when their name is pulled out of the proverbial hat on 22 October in Auckland.

This should be helped by an improved world ranking, with Banyana’s set to rise after winning all six games at Wafcon 2022.

Banyana were already 10 places higher in the world (58th) than the men’s team (68th) heading into this Wafcon, and calls have increased following the tournament for the women’s national team to be given equal pay with Bafana.

Given the ascent of Banyana, along with the descent of Bafana, this seems to me an increasingly reasonable request.

With this in mind, it remains a bit of a mystery why only Sasol seem to be dedicated sponsors for Banyana, with Safa talking about the difficulty of finding new backers. Banyana deserve all the support they can get.