Banyana unhappy over late bonus
BANYANA Banyana striker Jermaine Seoposenwe has admitted “there was a large amount of unhappiness” due to the late payment of their Africa Women’s Cup of Nations bonuses, but the players were never threatening any form of strike action.
Upon arrival back home from Ghana, where Banyana finished runners-up and qualified for the Fifa World Cup for the first time, the players received only a portion of the R2.4 million bonus they were promised from Safa.
Banyana face the Netherlands in the Winnie Madikizela-mandela Challenge at Cape Town Stadium today (kick-off 3pm) before another clash against Sweden at the same venue on Tuesday.
“There was a large amount of unhappiness due to the late payment. We felt disrespected as players as there was no communication‚” said Seoposenwe, who holds a business studies qualification from Samford
University in the US.
“As players we don’t want to go into games of this magnitude with unhappiness.”
Seoposenwe stressed that at no point were the players not going to take the field.
“When we came together as a team, it (the issue) was vented. But there wasn’t a plan to say we would not do anything,” she said.
“We said‚ ‘let’s go and speak to the team manager as we are professionals. Let’s treat this in a professional manner.’ Because she was so swift to get (Safa CEO) Mr Russell (Paul) in‚ (and) we did not get to the point where we felt we needed to take other action.”
Safa acting chief Russell Paul admitted that the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations bonus payments would be made later than initially promised, but praised the players for the manner in which the issue had been resolved.
“There has been some mischievous speculation around Banyana Banyana and their so-called discord in the camp around payments,” Paul said.
“We made a firm commitment to the players prior to them leaving for Ghana with regard to bonuses, and we agreed on numbers. We stuck to that commitment, and produced a cheque for them‚ in conjunction with (sponsor) Sasol‚ when they arrived home at the airport.
“They got a part-payment of that. Then, due to our offices being closed over the festive season, there was a delay in the balance of the payment from our side.
“The players showed some displeasure around this. We listened, and we made the commitment to pay by February 15. The players obviously would have liked it earlier‚ and I can confirm that the payment will, in fact, be made today (Friday).
“We are extremely proud of the girls and the way they have conducted themselves. They could have undertaken action that is unbecoming of a national side.
“Our responsibility is to make sure that we provide structure to what people can expect.”