Female athletes in South Africa (SA) are still forced to work full-time jobs alongside their sporting careers due to persistent wage gaps and a lack of professional leagues, according to briefings presented to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Sports, Arts and Culture.

Appearing before members of parliament alongside the Commission for Gender Equality, Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis warned that SA continues to lose top football talent because players must prioritize traditional nine-to-five jobs to survive financially.

“A professional league is of utmost importance,” Ellis told lawmakers. “We lose players because they have to put food on the table. We lose players because they work on weekends. Players work nine-to-fives. They train in the evening, and these same players are the ones that play for the national team. Can you just imagine if they just needed to concentrate on football, where we would be in women’s football.”

The Commission for Gender Equality presented a landmark report focusing on SA’s national women’s football team as a primary case study. Commission researcher Lieketseng Mohlakoane-Motopi highlighted that female athletes earn a fraction of what their male counterparts in Bafana Bafana receive, forcing many to juggle demanding work schedules around national team duties.

Beyond pay disparities, Ellis identified online abuse as an escalating crisis threatening athlete mental health and retention.

“I think cyberbullying has become big. As sports people, we’re open to criticism. There’s no two ways about it,” Ellis said. “But I think a line has to be drawn when it becomes personal. That has become so big that we’ve seen people commit suicide. We’ve seen players retire from sport because of that.”

–ChannelAfrica/SABC–