Swimming - Diving - Water Polo - Synchronised Swimming
There is no official database of results from the annual national swimming championships in South Africa. The information provided here has been gleaned from visiting libraries and reading old newspapers.
In January 1900, the first South African inter-provincial national aquatic sports championships were organised by the South African Amateur Swimming Union (SAASU) in Port Elizabeth, where a 50-yard long saltwater-filled swimming pool had been constructed on the harbour breakwater. The only affiliated bodies then were the Western Province ASA and the Eastern Province ASA.
Galas at schools and clubs were regularly held during the hot summer months in the colony. Swimming pools were built by municipalities and schools, with sports clubs also a common feature of English society in the Cape and the Eastern Cape. In Cape Town, aquatic carnivals were also hosted at the dry dock in the harbour.
The event featured a 100-yard Championship swimming race and water polo matches between the two competing provinces - Eastern Province and Western Province. Sir Donald Currie donated a trophy for the water polo tournament.
The programme was common to English-style 19th-century aquatic carnivals, combining water polo, a championship race (for men) with filler events like lifesaving, diving and ornamental (synchronised or artistic) swimming exhibitions. In addition, there were non-Championship handicapped and scratch swimming races for the men, as well as races for Ladies and Junior Boys. Other events were added over time, and in 1922, a 100-yard Championship event for Ladies was added to the programme.
As new provinces joined the SAASU, the annual national Championships were rotated to different main centres in each province with a suitable venue, and alternated between an inland and coastal city. After 1994, this arrangement was scrapped.