The South African Football Association (Safa) have reached an agreement with Banyana Banyana over their pay dispute ahead of their departure to the Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The Motsepe Foundation, founded by Confederation of African Football (CAF) president and billionaire Patrice Motsepe and his wife Precious Motsepe, pledged funds to resolve the dispute.

Members of the team had said that the $30,000 (€27,500) appearance fee that FIFA had promised to pay each of the 23 players was not in their contracts.

The fight brought up the topic of the pay gap between men and women in sports again.

Speaking at a press conference in Johannesburg, Precious Motsepe said that “this moment is about us paying lip-service when it comes to gender equality” saying it has mostly been “rhetoric” with no action.

“It takes every single one of us to ensure gender equality becomes a reality.”

At the press conference, the South African Football Players Union said that each player will get an extra 230,000 rand on top of the FIFA fee.

“We must present our case on behalf of this national pride to say they too deserve what Bafana Bafana (senior men’s national team) deserve, what the Springboks deserve,” sports minister Zizi Kodwa said at the same conference.

Australia and New Zealand are both hosting the World Cup, which starts on July 20. South Africa, Morocco, Nigeria, and Zambia are the African champions, and they will be playing for their continent.

Because of the fight, Banyana Banyana (The Girls) didn’t play a send-off game against Botswana last Sunday near Johannesburg. A group of South African players from the lower leagues who were put together quickly lost 5-0.

Precious Motsepe told the team to keep “speaking up” about inequality between men and women.

Photo by Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix