Baxter earns less than Mashaba and Mosimane
● Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter earns a lot less than believed. It emerged this week that the Briton’s monthly salary is less than that of his predecessors, Ephraim ‘‘Shakes” Mashaba and Pitso Mosimane.
Sunday Times can reveal that the Bafana coach earns R490 000 a month, which is considerably less than the R1-million a month salary he was reported to be earning after he was appointed to the national team coaching seat last year.
His predecessor Mashaba, on the other hand, earned R550 000 a month and Mosimane took home just under R800 000 a month.
National team coaches have an opportunity to increase their earnings through win bonuses but given that Bafana have hardly won matches under Baxter, the Briton has already lost out on hundreds of thousands of rands.
South African Football Association (Safa) communications head Dominic Chimhavi said that though he could not reveal Baxter's salary, it was nowhere near the R1-million a month that has continued to be linked to his name since last year.
“It is an association policy that we do not reveal salaries and financial packages of employees to the public,” Chimhavi said.
“But what I can say is that the R1-million a month that has continued to be bandied about in the public domain since last year is far from it.”
Bafana players get a R60 000 win bonus when they triumph in official international matches and the figure goes down to R30 000 for a draw.
They do not get anything for a defeat.
The same bonus structure is retained when Bafana Bafana play against high-profile opponents but Safa negotiates figures down to a lower figure when the national team faces less glamorous sides in friendly matches.
The national team coaches’ bonuses are substantially higher than the players’ and they are dependent on the agreements reached during negotiations before employment.
After beating Nigeria 2-0 away from home in an African Nations Cup qualifier in June last year, things suddenly went pearshaped for Bafana and that commendable result was followed by defeats to Zambia (CHAN), Cape Verde (home and away in the World Cup qualifiers) and Senegal (home and away in the World Cup qualifiers).
Bafana did manage a lone victory against Burkina Faso (3-1) at home in a World Cup qualifier but that victory was about the only highlight during a forgettable qualifying campaign. Baxter’s charges plummeted to new depths when they could not get past the opening stages of the recent Cosafa Cup in Polokwane, suffering the ignominy of playing in the plate section in a tournament that was played at home.
Baxter’s name was heavily linked with a return to former club Kaizer Chiefs and his salary was certainly not out of Amakhosi’s price range.
But it seems getting out of a contract that effectively runs until the 2022 World Cup and satisfying all the parties proved to be a bridge too far for Chiefs. Club boss Kaizer Motaung announced former Free State Stars coach Giovanni Solinas as the new Chiefs mentor on Friday ending the speculation.