Safa breaks silence on reported Bafana Bafana & Banyana Banyana outstanding payments - 'We have paid bonuses but not all of them'

Safa Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lydia Monyepao has commented for the first time since the revelation surfaced that the association owes Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana.

Reports have surfaced in recent weeks suggesting that the teams led by Hugo Broos and Desiree Ellis, along with their staff members, have not received payment for their recent caps.

In an interview with the Sunday World this week, Monyepao disclosed that indeed Safa has not compensated the two teams and detailed the reasons for the predicament.

"I do confirm that there are some Bafana Bafana payments that are outstanding but we have paid their daily allowance and that is covered, all of them. I think maybe it is probably the last camp we did not pay them, the local camp, not the away camp. We have paid the bonuses but not all of them, we are still owing them some bonuses," Monyepao told Sunday World. 

"We are working on ensuring that those bonuses are paid by the end of this year. she said. This is about cash in and cash out – do you have sufficient cash in your bank account to balance your scales, pay your suppliers, pay your salaries and the players and to ensure that you host games.

"Hosting games is very expensive. All the expenses are for us as member associations. That’s why we go to municipalities and provinces, asking them to assist us with some of the costs. Unfortunately, not all costs are covered," the CEO explained. 

"We still have huge gaps that we still need to cover. Qualifying for Afcon was everything for us, we had to make sure the team got the best logistics so that it could qualify. We have always had a channel of communication in terms of how we engage with the players. I was hoping to have a meeting with the players in the Cape Town camp but we could not. 

"The captain (Ronwen Williams) is the first point of reference, and I gave him the schedule of how much we have paid them and what we are owing. We congratulate the players for qualifying for Afcon and not complaining throughout about outstanding payments," she added. 

"They did us proud. It’s not only the bonuses that are outstanding, we have other monthly obligations, like Sars (South African Revenue Services) and the staff that we need to take care of and if we do not have sufficient money in the bank, we have to deal with what we can at the time."

Bafana Bafana have made the nation proud by qualifying for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations finals scheduled to take place in Morocco between December 2025 to January 2026.

Meanwhile, Banyana will also be aiming to defend their Wafcon title in Morocco next year after being drawn against Ghana, Mali, and Tanzania in Group C for the 15th edition of the tournament.

Safa must resolve the outstanding salaries for the two teams to keep them motivated ahead of the important upcoming tournaments in Morocco.

Bafana and Banyana will be anticipating that Safa will settle their unpaid salaries promptly.

Broos and his team will be back in action when they compete against Benin and Lesotho in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers in March next year.