Johannesburg
Johannesburg is the centre of a sporting powerhouse province in South African sport. Traditionally known as the Transvaal (or Southern Transvaal) province, its borders have been re-drawn in the post-1994 era. Towns like Randburg, Roodepoort, and Soweto are now deemed to be a part of greater Johannesburg.
Swimming pools abound in the region, at schools, Universities, municipal pools, private health clubs, and even entrepreneurial coaches who developed their own facilities. Most of the pools are unheated and unusable during the cold winter months, when temperatures are often below 4 degrees Celsius, although today there is a growth of heated facilities.
The Ellis Park municipal swimming pool in Doornfontein dates from 1908 and was often the venue for the South African swimming and diving championships. Since the early days of competitive swimming in the area, galas were often held in one of the many local dams.
Many state schools have experienced a complete change in pupil demographic after white schools were opened to non-whites in 1994. The drive to force Afrikaans language schools to become English-medium only has contributed to this phenomenon. Whites have fled from these schools to private schools, leading to the creation of a new lucrative for-profit sector in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. As a result many older state schools still have swimming pools, and even a history of swimming excellence, but do not participate in aquatic sports anymore.
Johannesburg Schools
St Mary's School in the Johannesburg suburb of Waverly boasts a heated 50m pool.
Johannesburg Municipal Swimming Pools
Municipal and other state-funded swimming facilities abound around Johannesburg. The pool at the University of Witwatersrand (above) was the venue for many Transvaal ASA and inter-varsity events in the past.