Last year SAFA president Danny Jordaan said plans to have a Women’s Professional League in 2019 are on track and Xasa has given them a boost by pledging R5 million.
At this stage it’s unclear when the league will start.
“As the Department of Sport and Recreation, we will in the next five years avail R5m towards the Women’s Professional League,” she said at a breakfast that was held for Banyana Banyana in Cape Town on Wednesday morning.
Xasa congratulated Banyana for their successful 2018, in which they won the COSAFA Championships, qualified for the FIFA World Cup by reaching the final of the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations and were named SA Sports Team of the Year.
Coach Desiree Ellis was named Women’s National Team Coach of the Year, while Thembi Kgatlana was named African Women’s Player of the Year.
“We are here to celebrate you, not only because you were selected as the Team of the Year at the 2018 South African Sports Awards, but for having inspired and uniting a nation, reminding us that we all have a collective claim in this country – that we are all South Africans. You are going to remembered as icons of your generations,” said Xasa.
“To you Desiree, we are also here not to celebrate you as the best woman coach in Africa, but for breaking the patriachal ceiling, and to you Thembi, you have won the hearts of many soccer-loving people in our country. Congratulations once again for being selected Africa’s Woman Player of the Year for 2018.”