On the drama surrounding Banyana's friendly against Botswana
It's very sad and unfair to see what Banyana Banyana are going through after being crowned the champions of Africa and qualifying for the FIFA World Cup. As women in football, we have been fighting this battle for many years and the Class before us fought for 10 years. It's been over 25 years now, and we are still trying to fight for equal rights in football and nothing has changed. We are fighting to be seen and respected the same way as Bafana Bafana players. We are assets of the nation and we are asking for gender equality. We feel that SAFA is not ready to give us that. I was confused when the SAFA President, Danny Jordaan, said that he wanted South Africa to host the next FIFA Women's World Cup. How do you host a FIFA Women's World Cup when you are acting this way towards women's football in South Africa? That is confusing for me. Banyana Banyana players have not done anything wrong, this is about standing together and we demand respect and equality. Enough is enough! Playing at the World Cup is not like playing at any tournament, this is a huge tournament.
At the end of the day, we are also workers. Personally, I come from a disadvantaged home and wanted to use my talent to change our situation and I was never able to do so because as players, we are not treated the same. There is a grant coming from FIFA for qualifying for the World Cup, those Banyana Banyana girls deserve to be paid that money. This is not something new, we've been talking about this for a very long time. People must listen to what we are saying not with a judgemental ear but with a positive ear and wanting to find solution. If people listened to us when we spoke as players, we would not be dealing with the same problems we are dealing with today. I also see that there are some people who are using this issue as a way to make themselves famous and get seen by the public. For us, as women who have been affected by this issue, this is not about social media likes. This is not about publicity. This is about lives. Not getting paid what we deserve affected us in the past and it's still affecting current players and some of us have been dealing with depression. When people look at women professional athletes, they think we are stupid for choosing sport as a professional career. But this is also our gift.
On what the solution is to the impasse
The solution going forward is simple: The way SAFA treats Bafana Bafana, they must just give Banyana Banyana players the same treatment. It's as simple as that. This doesn't need all these meetings which are currently happening right now. All the contracts they have given to Bafana Bafana must be transferred to Banyana Banyana and then we are done. FIFA allocated SAFA money for Banyana Banyana qualifying for the World Cup. Who is monitoring that money? Who has the records? SAFA can say they have received the money, but we know about their debts and all the problems they have. You must also remember that when Banyana Banyana qualified for the 2022 Wafcon in Morocco, Danny Jordaan did not believe these players could win the tournament and promised them money. When they won, he got a shock of his life.
Now we are going to the World Cup and players are told they will not be receiving money from the association. At a crucial moment, right before we head to the World Cup, we are playing against Botswana. You can't bring us Botswana when we are going to the World Cup to play against big countries. Last year before the festive season, they brought us Brazil and Australia and when we need serious games – right when we need opponents who are on the same level as our World Cup opponents – we get Botswana. There are countries who did not qualify for the World Cup but have a better pedigree than us, why did we not arrange friendly matches against those top countries? There are lots of European countries we could have played against, why did they not find us those opponents? Let's play those countries and then see how far we are in terms of preparations before going to the World Cup. Let's see if our players are physically and mentally ready by playing those opponents. We are not going to the COSAFA Cup or Africa Cup of Nations, we are going to the FIFA World Cup to play against the best players in the world! Now they are bringing us Botswana. These people are really disrespecting us.
On challenges facing women's football in SA
We are fighting for the same recognition at national team. We are not even talking about club level because that is a different case altogether. We are talking about the national team, the pride of the nation. The fact that women's football in this country doesn't have the good structures, doesn't have a professional league and at club level we still have teams who travel for 22 hours to play 90 minutes, that tells you everything. The structure of our football doesn't allow us to dream about going to the World Cup and do well. Our girls are not getting paid well to invest in their own personal training like overseas players and to take this game seriously as a job. It's only when we get to the national team that we feel a little bit like professional players. We come from disadvantaged clubs who do not have proper training facilities and we don't even train the same because we don't have the same training equipment. When we get to the national team, we are pumped with a lot of work and some players end up getting injured and overstrain their muscles because they are pushed to get ready for the big tournament, which is the World Cup. PSL clubs play week in and week out and players belong to teams that are professional and have money to invest in their bodies and take care of themselves. When it comes to Banyana Banyana, how many players can say that? With two weeks to go before the World Cup, everything that is happening will affect the players' performance. When we try to fight for what we deserve, we are always judged and told we are not deserving and we must go out there and represent the country. Even soldiers don't carry guns for free.
