South Africa: SA Water Polo Gets Its Ducks in a Row, Aiming for Recognition By World Aquatics

6 November 2025
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
By Keanan Hemmonsbey

After a high court ruling this year permitting South Africa Water Polo to continue operating, the newly formed body has held several tournaments and funded water polo clinics.

This year has been turbulent for water polo in South Africa. A tussle for power between Swimming South Africa (SSA) and South Africa Water Polo (Sawp) went all the way to the Western Cape Division of the High Court in Cape Town.

Judge Judith Cloete ruled in favour of Sawp and against the urgent interdict brought forward by SSA. Judge Cloete found that SSA "does not have an exclusive right in perpetuity to govern or administer the sport of water polo in South Africa".

The ruling allowed Sawp to continue operating as a non-profit, community-governed body, with its aims firmly set on being approved by World Aquatics, after which it will be eligible to govern the sport in place of SSA.

In the interim, Sawp has been getting its ducks in a row. Outside of the in-water events it organised, it now runs the Western Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Nelson Mandela Bay men's and women's water polo leagues, and all the Masters water polo programmes in South Africa.

Sawp held its...

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