Can SA football be saved by Banyana Banyana? We’d bet on these queens any day! The South African women’s football team, Banyana Banyana (The Girls), has been on a steady trajectory since their inception. Just a few years after Bafana Bafana, South Africa’s men's national football team, got reinstated to play international football, the girls seem to be the ones that have risen in stature and promise.
Banyana Banyana played their first international match on the 30th of May, 1993, against Swaziland and they have impressed and grown ever since.
The team has always shown promise and growth despite South Africa not having a women’s professional soccer league for ages. Through the years, “The Girls” played mostly their Southern African opponents to get international experience. Even without a fully functional professional league, South African Women’s football has always been represented internationally at different age levels, including Under 17 and Under 20 plus the senior team. The senior team have participated in the COSAFA Women’s Championship many times and only became champions in the early 2000s. They have been crowned the COSAFA Women’s Champions seven times – 2002, 2006, 2008, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. They were runners-up in the 2011 competition.
And now they’re moving to bigger and better opportunities.
Desiree is taking them places
Former captain, Desiree Ellis, is the current Head Coach. Both as a player and coach she has always been feisty, determined and ambitious and that ambition can be seen in the current team's style of play and the attitude the girls have adopted.
She is assisted by Assistant Coach Thinasonke Mbuli, Goalkeeper Coach Cameron Cox, and the technical team. Desiree has been at the helm since 2016 and has guided this team all the way to the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations.
And what a journey it has been.
Banyana Banyana have certainly made local fans sit up and take notice in the past. They qualified for the Olympics in 2012, followed by the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019. They have faced off against tough groups and well-seasoned and experienced countries, for example, their FIFA Women’s World Cup group included Germany, China and Spain. It was not a surprise that their first outing on this famous stage led to Banyana Banyana losing all their matches and scoring only one goal against Spain.
But that has never stopped them.
It’s time to rise
The South African ladies do have reason to celebrate: they have produced Africa's Top International goal scorer in both men's and women’s football. Portia Modise, Banyana’s former striker, has netted 101 international goals in 124 international matches. This veteran has been celebrated in Mzansi and she has become a personality of note, being active in fighting for equal payment and recognition of women footballers. She has been one of the leaders and activists campaigning for equal pay, especially considering that Banyana Banyana have done far better than their male counterparts, Bafana Bafana. Unlike “The Boys”, Banyana have qualified for the 2000, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2022 Africa Women’s Championship, then the 2020, and 2021 COSAFA Women’s Championship squad, and they have been to two Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016 and the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
This is an incredible feat for ladies who play in a semi-professional league with few pursuing football professionally, full-time overseas.
It’s all about the passion
Mzansi has had the luck and privilege of finding and retaining solid players who have always availed themselves for national duty and call-ups. Take Banyana Banyana captain, Janine van Wyk. She has always been loyal to the squad, even when she got a huge deal overseas. Banyana’s superstar – and probably the most popular player right now – Refileo Jane, who plies her trade in Italy for AC Milan Ladies, has always answered when the national team called.
Over the years, Banyana has kept the core of the team, the central players who remain with the team through the years and guide the newcomers. Banyana’s top five most capped players have all earned over 100 caps each: Janine van Wyk with 170 caps and counting, Noko Matlou with 157 caps and counting, Nompumelelo Nyandeni with 149 and the tally is going up, Nothando Vilikazi at 133 games and counting and, to wrap the top five, the enterprising star Refileo Jane who, with 116 games at only 29 years of age, will surely be playing for a long time to come.
Our ladies are simply the best
Banyana Banyana have shone over the years and given local soccer fans many reasons to delight in our homegrown talent and ambition..
It has been four years without the WAFCON tournament due to the Coronavirus outbreak, but 2022 has brought this contest of Africa’s best back to our screens and our queens are slaying!
In this year’s WAFCON, South Africa was pulled in a draw with the continent’s most feared team, Nigeria, followed by their neighbours in Botswana and the less known Burundi in Group C.
The first game of the group was the West and Southern rivalry of Banyana and the Nigerian squad. The game ended in a 2-1 victory for Mzansi’s favourite femmes, and defeat to SA for the Nigerians for the first time in WAFCON history. The girls just proved to be more agile and their passes connected better.
The next game was against their neighbours, Botswana, on Sunday the 10th of July. South Africa won by 1-0. Banyana’s next match was against Burundi and
“The Girls” came out tops with a 3-1 victory.
Having won all their group stage matches, “The Girls” went up against the Tunisian ladies on the 14th of July. Banyana won the game 1-0, with Jermaine Seoposenwe’s 14th-minute goal being the only score of the match.
The result not only sets this amazing team up for the semi-finals of WAFCON, it also gets them qualification for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament in Australia and New Zealand!
Banyana Banyana have proven that, whether or not you have all the resources or the money or the international gig name talents, if you have the passion and determination to work as a unit and represent the badge you wear on your shirt, you can make the impossible, possible.
And, with a squad boasting all the above experience and the youthful exuberance of players like 18-year-old Nthabiseng Majiya and 21-year-olds Noxolo.
Cesane and Sibulele Holweni, they will be a dominant force for years to come.
Keeping Desiree Ellis and her excellent support team is a must if we want to see this team go even further than ever before. We have the commitment, the passion, and the talent. Now it’s time to say “Halala” to the future legends. This team is the one to watch, and maybe put a bet or two on, for the next couple of years.