Jomo Sono Shares What He Earned As Bafana Bafana Coach, Speaks on Pitso Mosimane’s Salary
- Former Bafana Bafana coach Jomo Sono backed Pitso Mosimane's decision to reject SAFA's initial R5 million salary offer
- Sono revealed what he earned per month as Bafana caretaker coach in 1998, a figure he said would make people 'collapse'
- The football legend pointed to a long history of salary inequality between South African and foreign coaches
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Football icon Jomo Sono has come out firmly in support of Pitso Mosimane's decision to push back against SAFA's opening salary offer, while also pulling back the curtain on his own modest earnings when he served as Bafana Bafana's caretaker coach in 1998. Speaking to Thabiso Mosia on Radio 2000, Sono made it clear he would have walked away from the same deal.
"I knew that Pitso would never take R5 million when he knew that Broos got R15 million," Sono said. "Even I, I wouldn't take it. I would say 'No, I don't want it. I want the same as the white man.'"
Mosimane was officially unveiled as Bafana's new head coach earlier this week after lengthy negotiations with SAFA. Reports indicate he was initially offered R5 million, a figure that stood in sharp contrast to the R16.8 million his predecessor Hugo Broos received, an amount SAFA disclosed before the portfolio committee on sports, arts and culture last week.
## Sono's Shocking R100 000 Salary Revealed
Sono was drafted in as caretaker in 1998 after Clive Barker was dismissed ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations, and he guided the team all the way to the final. Despite that achievement, the compensation he received was far from impressive.
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"If I can tell you my salary, you will collapse. I was a caretaker, I got a R100 000 a month for coaching Bafana," he said. "And being a caretaker coach I was there for three months. It was not bad, because I managed to buy bread. Because I love my country, I said I would do it. For me, it was not money but about the country."
## A Deeper Problem With Local vs Foreign Coaches
Sono broadened the conversation to highlight what he described as a long-standing pattern of undervaluing South African coaches relative to their foreign counterparts.
"The Brazilian coaches got millions, while they were national team coach. And then there were Shakes Mashaba, myself, Trott Moloto, Clive Barker, we were never near those amounts," he said, adding that the disparity mirrors consumer behaviour around labels.
"If you buy cloth, and you make two shirts out of that cloth and one shirt you put the label 'made in South Africa' and the other 'made in America' – which one will the South Africans buy? Made in America, but they are from South Africa, both of them. It was the same thing with the coaches."
Notably, Sono is widely credited with discovering Mosimane as a player. Meanwhile, SAFA president Dr Danny Jordaan declined to confirm the figure Mosimane will earn in his new role when pressed on the question.
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Source: Briefly News
