Springbok captain Siya Kolisi has made an impassioned plea for society, including the sports world, to start making a better effort to address the serious problem of gender inequality in SA.

The 30-year old Kolisi, who led the Springboks to World Cup victory in Japan in 2019, said it is unacceptable that women in all spheres of life don’t get what is due to them.

“I am calling on everybody: gender equality is a struggle everywhere in life and not just in sport,” he said.

“We all need to pull our weight and make sure that women are treated equally. There are so many women who should be in positions but they are not simply because they are women.

“What I am saying is that if somebody deserves to be somewhere, let them be there.”

Kolisi said some sportswomen work much harder than men but don’t get the same financial rewards, plaudits and airtime in the media.

“This issue is very personal to me because I know a lot of women who work 10 times harder than me but don’t get the same recognition, and nobody really knows about them because they don’t get enough airtime.

“How are we going to inspire young women if they don’t see people who look like them publicised for the good work they are doing out there. We talk about representation — it is not only about skin colour but it also about gender.

“I want my daughter to be able to see other women and young women doing amazing things in sport on television or other platforms so that she can also aspire to whatever she wants to be.

“Not only to dream of working in the office, but she must know that she can also be a sports star. I feel that as men it is our duty to do that. We can encourage the politicians but we must start celebrating women as men.”

Olympic 200m breaststroke champion and record holder Tatjana Schoenmaker agreed with Kolisi. She said in swimming the situation can be more challenging as the athletes often have to pay for their trips to compete in sports events.

The two were speaking at the SA Sports Awards in Durban, where Schoenmaker won the Sports Star of the Year award, which Kolisi was also nominated for.

“Swimming is not really a well-known sport in SA and we don’t get enough funding. Sometimes we fund ourselves to go on tours, like to the world champs and events like that.

“It is tough having to put in all these hours of hard work and at the end not having money to travel to events. My parents have supported me financially to this day and for me to even think of going off my parents' support is challenging.

“They have been supporting me all this time and not really gotten as much back.”