Insurer to respond to SA success

Banyana Banyana’s first qualification for the World Cup this week has not gone unnoticed after it emerged yesterday afternoon that insurance company MiWay is thinking about sponsoring the national women’s team in the build-up to the global showpiece in France next year.

MiWay chief executive Rene Otto said they are interested in supporting Banyana and he took things a step further when he also pledged R100 000 towards a once-off bonus to be awarded to the team in recognition of their historic achievement.

Otto challenged corporate South Africa to put their money where their mouths are and contribute towards the bonus.

“We would love to sponsor Banyana in the future‚” he said.

“We respect the fact that they have a sponsor at the moment [Sasol] and we don’t know what opportunities are there.”

Otto said fellow corporates are yet to respond, but he will follow up to see who is willing to come on board.

“I will make a follow up to see who is interested‚” he said.

“But it would be sad if there are no other companies that want to join us.

“We took note of what Banyana were doing in Ghana and we realised that we don’t appreciate them enough.

“We have also noticed that there is a huge [payment] discrepancy between Banyana and Bafana Bafana,” said Otto.

Before they left for Ghana‚ Banyana were promised a share of R2 520 000 if they win the tournament or R1 575 000 if they finish as runners-up.

Outsurance said they would follow MiWay’s lead as they are already supporting Safa through their sponsorship of South African match officials.

“We are very proud of Banyana qualifying for the World Cup‚” said Natasha Kawulesar.