Sporting Provinces of South Africa

From its establishment in 1910 until 1994, South Africa was a country created out of four political entities - the two former British colonies of the Cape and Natal, and the two Afrikaner republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. For sporting purposes, these were divided into smaller provinces.

Each province is distinct in its economy, geography, and history.  For example,  Transvaal was a densely populated and industrialized province. Its main centre was the city Johannesburg, with numerous big schools and municipal swimming pools. In contrast, the Orange Free State was a large and sparsely populated province with few large towns. The majority of Free State dorpies with one school in each - and an unheated municipal swimming pool. Many of those facilities are now dead pools. 

The geography of the sub-continent played a big role in the history of aquatic sports. The Pools and other Places - the swimming pools, rivers, beaches, dams - are defined by their location. Heated pools - and indoor pools -  were few and far between. The inland provinces were on the highveld, which is up to 1500m above sea level, and where winter temperatures dropped below freezing. Along the sub-tropical coast, the swimmers from Natal could train outdoors for most of the year 

Each province had its own education department, rooted in its particular history. The whole country, outside the cities, was largely Afrikaans speaking, while cities had more English schools. Notable exceptions were the wealthy rural English private schools found in Natal and the Eastern Cape. Aquatic sports are traditionally favoured by English schools, while Afrikaans schools dominate the rugby and netball rankings in 2020.

Inter-provincial aquatic sports competition was managed by the national governing body known as the South African Amateur Swimming Union (SAASU). School sports were governed separately. At the time of it's founding in 1899 the first member Provinces of SAASU just were Western Province and Eastern Province. The first national water polo championship event, known as the Currie Cup Tournament, was held at Port Elizabeth in 1900.

After the Boer War ended in 1902, more provinces began to join. The Orange River Colony (ORC), and Transvaal became members, although the Transvaal soon split into Northern and Southern Transvaal, with Eastern and Western Transvaal emerging later. The Vaal Triangle province was created in the 1970s. Mossel Bay and East London were represented and sending their own teams to the championships, although they later became part of Eastern Province and Border respectively.  The northern Cape city of Kimberley, home of Karen Muir, became the home of the Griqualand West province. Rhodesia was a province and South West Africa also competed as a province, until 1990.