Thabo Makwakwa
WITH women earning less than men in sports and making it almost impossible for women to become financially independent, Momentum's head of marketing Charlotte Nsubuga-Makusa has said that her company has taken a bold journey towards influencing change.
Speaking to Independent Media last week ahead of the Sports Seminar held at the Exhibition Centre in Durban, Nsubuga-Makusa said women in sport were underpaid, and urged sponsors to develop a different mindset when it came to bridging the gap.
According to Nsubuga-Makusa, women remain under-represented in all sports in the country with only 0.5% of the total commercial investment going to women while men’s sports received 61%.
“Momentum is an official sponsor of the Proteas Women’s team and we are entering our eleventh year on a year-to-year basis. Our experienced has taught us to encourage other sponsors to invest and put money into women’s sports, because we believe that women athletes who have good stories of excellent work in sports are not getting the recognition they deserve.
“We feel that the lack of interest and the minimum media visibility of women also impacts negatively on the availability of sponsors as there is no exposure of these women in sports.
“Momentum has journeyed into more than just throwing money into the proteas but also engaging different stakeholders who can come together to educate these amazing women to sustain their lives using their talent, including speaking to other companies to support women in sports,” she said.
She indicated that Momentum had developed the #OneMoreFan campaign aimed at encouraging fans to watch women's sports.
Nsubuga-Makusa said: “For example, the more people follow and watch the Momentum Proteas, the more interest will be generated in women’s cricket. This will have a positive effect which will attract the media’s attention as well as sponsors.
“I must also indicate that our initiatives don’t end there, we aim to assist women in sports to understand the business side of sports, and be able to communicate better with those that would be interested in their work.”
She was excited that the government too was working with different stakeholders to ensure that women in sports were not left behind. “Over time, we need to look at what is the success of women so that we can add value to the development and well-being of women in sports.”
Echoing Nsubuga-Makusa, Royal AM president Shawn Mkhize popularly known as MaMkhize, highlighted the importance of business to invest in women’s sports to effect change and break the gender gap.
Living up to her commitment to assist women in sports, MaMkhize also surprised the audience when she announced her intention to bring in former Banyana Banyana star striker Portia Modise to be part of her women’s team’s coaching staff.
“I have been looking for you Portia to be part of the (Royal AM) ladies. We will talk after here, but I want you to be on my team,” said Mkhize.
The Sports Seminar attracted various community members in sports with various panellists engaging in conversations about issues affecting sports.