Selborne College and Clarendon High School for Girls are in SA School’s Top 10 for water polo in 2025, but ongoing spats challenging Swimming SA’s (SSA) role as administrator of the sport highlights concerns that SSA stifles players’ careers beyond school.
For more than a year, a split in SSA had been brewing, and it came to a head last month when players, coaches, and officials formed SA Water Polo as a rival representative body. SSA has since issued legal letters demanding SA Water Polo cease mobilising support, arguing that Sascoc and World Aquatics recognise only one governing body per country. Despite this, SA Water Polo remains undeterred, rallying support in hopes of securing enough backing to challenge SSA.
Those in the SA Water Polo camp told the GO!&Express that for players from schools like Selborne College and Clarendon GHS, there was a slim shot at a real career in the sport, despite how well they perform because the structures that are meant to support the transition of high performance athletes from school level to senior, have been severely eroded in the last 20 years.
For Buffalo City this would be a travesty, considering Selborne and Claredon GHS put up a formidable campaign in 2025 placing ninth out of 40 school teams nationally.
SA Water Polo’s Sieg Lokotsch believes that ailing governance and administration combined with absent grassroots development destroyed water polo nationally.
Lokotsch said: “SA has the most schools players of any country in the world but after school, water polo dies because there is no more clubs, senior’s men water polo or masters.
“Water polo has now been reduced to a fun chapter player’s associate with their school years.
“SA Water Polo has the will and passion to restore governance in the sport, push for grassroots development, create a pathway from schools to seniors and use the next five years to build an Olympic team. These are key performance areas that SSA has had two decades to address.
“The ongoing tension between SA Water Polo and SSA will not be cleared up overnight. It is a risk for players to stand in support with us because SSA has the predilection to cut player’s careers short if they criticise the administration. But we believe that careers are curtailed in the sport anyway.
“We had hoped to work with SSA for the betterment of the sport but they refuse to meet us. The tensions in the sport now mark a moral dilemma for all who love the game because water polo will die at school level without intervention.”
SSA concedes to administrative failings including dearth of club structures, lack of financial oversight, limited grassroots participation and regulatory non-compliance. This has led to only 10 water polo clubs being formally registered nationwide, dysfunctional provincial structures, financial irregularities and limited transformation.
To rectify this, SSA has developed a road map to take players from school water polo to club level, which includes the Splash Polo programme to facilitate entry points for players from disadvantaged backgrounds. SSA said it had appointed an operations committee and a task team to enhance administrative oversight and implement financial controls.
At the start of March, SSA operations manager Mafata Modutoane told the GO!&Express: “Progression will be facilitated through the establishment of structured junior leagues at U16, U18, U20 levels serving as key pathways leading into SSA’s high performance elite squad system.
“Breakaway movements within water polo are not new to SSA. Historically, such efforts have been driven by a select group of individuals who, rather than working within the framework of SSA to drive meaningful change, have sought to establish alternative structures for personal gain.
“The formation of SA Water Polo appears to be motivated by vested financial interests rather than genuine concerns for the sport’s development.
“SSA remains firm in its commitment to a unified and structured approach to water polo’s growth and will not endorse any initiatives that undermine the integrity of the sport.”
Modutoane added that water polo in Buffalo City has a strong track record of successfully hosting junior and senior national competitions.
Both Selborne and Clarendon credit the strong internal culture of their schools as the foundation of their success this year.
Selborne College’s first team coach, Storm Siebert said: “At Selborne, our goal isn’t just to compete with SA’s top schools but to consistently be among them. While we don’t have as much local competition, we simulate high-pressure situations in training to prepare for tournaments.
“To keep our squad sharp, no player’s spot is guaranteed — we foster healthy competition and bring in younger players early to build experience.”
Clarendon GHS media liaison, Nicole Sieberhagen said Clarendon’s rise to the national top 10 was the result of strong coaching, world-class facilities in the Harrison Aquatic Centre, dedicated game analysis and a committed strategic conditioning team led by Kerry Voke.
“One of the biggest challenges has been balancing academics and sport. Many players excel in the classroom while dedicating hours to training and competition. The financial demands of competing at the highest level also put pressure on families, but the team has persevered.”
Buffalo City Water Polo’s executive did not reply to requests for comment by print deadline.
