It’s supposed to be Banyana Banyana’s moment in the sun after five previous heartbreaks, but their success in the Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) has been shrouded by destructive debate around equal pay, and in some instances, insulting talk about the standard of women football.

There’s no reducing Banyana’s success to anything than the momentous achievement it was: It took hard toil, tears and sweat to finally lift that trophy last week in Morocco, when they beat the hosts in a tense final that had all of us watching on TV wondering if it would again end in disappointment...