Swimming SA accuses alternative aquatics body of pressuring athletes to boycott its events

Swimming South Africa (SSA) has accused the organisation South Africa Water Polo (SAWP) of victimising and pressuring athletes into boycotting SSA teams and events.

This comes amid mounting administrative chaos surrounding the selection of the national teams set to represent South Africa at the upcoming Division 2 Water Polo World Cup, which gets under way on 7 April for men and 21 April for women.

On 25 March, Daily Maverick reported that teams being sent to the upcoming World Cup risk going wholly unprepared. This is because “trials” took place only last December, and team lists were not issued within the promised three days.

They went out two months later – and since 19 February, when the initial list was distributed, the men’s team has twice been revised.

In correspondence sent to Daily Maverick on 18 March, SSA claimed to have received “numerous complaints” that athletes were being pressured by SAWP to boycott SSA’s events, including refusing selection for the World Cup team.

“The issues are under investigation and SSA is currently weighing its options insofar as the aforementioned evidence is concerned,” SSA chief executive Shaun Adriaanse told Daily Maverick in an email.

Daily Maverick asked SSA if it had reported these alleged complaints to any independent sports integrity body for investigation. SSA did not answer that question.

SAWP chief executive Robbie Taylor strongly rejected the accusations.

“SAWP has not been contacted by any sports integrity body, nor have we received any formal complaints regarding athlete victimisation,” he said. “SAWP is a voluntary organisation built on the principles of community, transparency and the love of the game.

“We strongly encourage freedom of choice and have explicitly communicated to our members that we do not ban or victimise anyone for their decisions.

“We simply advocate for fair selection processes, proper administration and high standards, trusting the community to support the structures that best serve the sport’s long-term future.”

More than a year ago, a group of disillusioned coaches, referees, administrators and players decided that they had had enough of SSA’s poor running of water polo.

They formed their own body, which Judge Judith Cloete affirmed in a high court ruling on 18 June 2025 had the right to exist.

To date, SAWP has more than 2,000 registered members and beyond the in-water events it has organised, it now runs the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Nelson Mandela Bay men’s and women’s water polo leagues, and all the Masters water polo programmes in South Africa, according to Taylor.

“Our rapid growth is a testament to athletes, parents and coaches actively seeking a professionally administered sporting environment,” said Taylor.

Evidence of accusations

Upon request to provide evidence of these complaints, SSA emailed Daily Maverick with a series of screenshots, without the full context.

The first was a string of what appear to be WhatsApp messages containing a statement from Cape Town Water Polo (CTWP), a regional body under SAWP.

Upon further research, the statement appears to originate from a Facebook post published on 27 January in which CTWP’s chairman Duncan Woods explained the body’s position on sending teams to this year’s national championships, held from 13 to 15 March in KwaZulu-Natal.

The national championships, also known as the Currie Cup, is a significant annual tournament where national squads are typically selected.

“[CTWP is] a body that is aligned to the South Africa Water Polo (SAWP) body formed in 2025, and our leagues and all activities within our jurisdiction are aligned with SAWP as our parent body,” the statement read.

It is on that basis that CTWP decided not to send any teams to SSA nationals this year.

“We encourage all CTWP players, coaches and officials to support the pathways established by this committee and our national bodies SAWP and SWPSA [Schools Water Polo South Africa],” the statement concluded.

“By consolidating our efforts within these channels, we can ensure a consistent, unified programme that prioritises the long-term development of our sport.”

The decision to withdraw from the SSA nationals was not a centralised directive issued by SAWP, said Taylor.

Exclusionary policies

Alongside the screenshots of the CTWP statement, SSA also attached a screenshot from a document that SAWP distributed to its members regarding their recent invitation to participate in the 2026 EU Nations Water Polo Cup. It included information on the tournament, the selection process and eligibility criteria.

SSA took issue with the eligibility framework, as that is what they highlighted and screenshotted.

The document states that selection will prioritise:

• Athletes who are members in good standing with South Africa Water Polo.
• Athletes who are not participating in any water polo competitions or programmes administered through Swimming South Africa.
• Athletes currently competing internationally whose performances meet the required standard.

In response to the outlined selection policy, Taylor stated: “The SAWP selection criteria for the EU Nations Cup are designed to elevate our national standards and ensure our teams are highly competitive globally.

“We require athletes to fully commit to a structured, professional high-performance pathway, which includes squad selections at the Gauteng Invitational, multiple training camps, and final team selections at the Cape Town Invitational.

“Athletes are not being forced to choose between their sport and their country; rather, they are being provided with a credible, professionally managed route to international representation.”

A telling decision

If anything, the policy emphasises that the two bodies continue to operate in a mutually exclusive environment.

SSA is using this to claim they are being “destroyed” by the “unaffiliated voluntary organisation”, but it raises a deeper question: why are athletes and major provinces such as the Western Cape willing to forfeit official national colours to join an unaffiliated body?

“Representing South Africa is one of the highest honours in sport, and the green and gold must be earned through a rigorous, transparent, and merit-based process,” said Taylor.

“Unfortunately, our national senior men’s and women’s teams have underperformed on the international stage recently, largely due to poor planning, inadequate preparation and opaque paper-selection processes.”

Previous complaints

This is not the first time SSA has brought this accusation to the fore.

In March 2025, SSA lodged an urgent application at the Western Cape Division of the High Court in Cape Town to stop SAWP from operating.

In SSA’s interdict, some of the accusations forming the basis for the interdict were that SAWP was:

• Interfering with the affairs of SSA, specifically by directing or encouraging persons or entities to boycott or avoid participating in events held under SSA’s auspices;
• Dissuading or discouraging people from participating in local or international water polo events organised by SSA;

In her ruling, Judge Cloete dismissed the accusations, concluding that a plain reading of the statement did not support SSA’s assertion.

SAWP has reiterated that it does not intend to replace SSA; it seeks rather to establish a peaceful coexistence.

In the meantime, as the parties continue their unilateral actions, the choices being made by athletes, coaches and administrators alike are proving far more telling than the accusations themselves. DM