Former Bafana Bafana coach Jomo Sono has insisted Pitso Mosimane was right to walk away from SAFA’s reported R5 million salary offer, revealing he earned just R100 000 per month as caretaker coach.
Mosimane has been unveiled as new Bafana head coach earlier in the week, but there had been some drawn-out negotiations between his camp and SAFA before both parties eventually agreed.
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According to reports, Mosimane was first offered R5 million, while his predecessor Hugo Broos received R16.8 million, as revealed by SAFA in front of the portfolio committee on sports, arts and culture last week – with Sono, who famously unearthed Mosimane as a player – insisting he would’ve also walked away from SAFA’s initial offer.
“This time they have the right choice in coach, South African and give him what he wants,” he told Thabiso Mosia on Radio 2000.
“Because I knew that Pitso would never take R5 million when he knew that Broos got R15 million.
“Even I, I wouldn’t take it. I would say ‘No, I don’t want it. I want the same as the white man.”
Sono himself was appointed Bafana caretaker in 1998 after Clive Barker had been sacked before Africa Cup of Nations, guiding the team to the final.
He now revealed how much or rather how little he earned as Bafana coach during those days.
“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 stated.
“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.”
Sono then went on to explain that there has always been a salary disparity between local and foreign coaches, making an example that foreign labels sell more.
“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 added.
“We all carried on, we all did the job. It’s because we were South Africans.
“If you buy cloth, and you make two shirts out 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.”
When quizzed about Mosimane’s salary as Bafana head coach, SAFA president Dr. Danny Jordaan refused to answer the question.