SA president calls for equal pay for women footballers

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the country's women's football team "deserve equal pay" to the men.

He made the call at a ceremony to welcome home the female players who had just won the Women's Africa Cup of Nations after beating Morocco 2-1 at the weekend.

"I have been told that you get 10 times less than what the men get when they play, and that has to come to an end," he told the women, who cheered his announcement.

He urged the country's ministers of finance and sports to increase the bonus.

"We are a non-racial, democratic and non-sexist country. I am hugely opposed to non-equal pay and it must come to an end."

The president said South Africa should outlaw pay discrimination and embark on a programme to bridge the gender pay gap.

His statement follows a public debate around equal pay in the country after the Wafcon victory.

It was earlier reported that the players would receive less money in prize bonuses than their male colleagues did for reaching the quarter-finals of the men's tournament in 2019.

This article originally appeared in BBC News

Photo: Gallo