The medals we celebrate - and the champions South Africa may never discover

South Africa finished the Commonwealth Games swimming programme with 22 medals, second only to Australia. Behind that result sits a federation that received R3.1 million in new national funding last year while collecting R9.53 million from athletes and their families. Public pools stand closed in Johannesburg, Buffalo City and Mangaung, Durban's Kings Park remains shut after storm damage, and the Franschhoek high-performance centre is unfinished amid an SIU investigation. Australia's federal government allocated roughly R227.6 million to swimming for 2025/26. The question for Minister Gayton McKenzie and Swimming South Africa is how many swimmers never reached a starting block..By Leah Potgieter*.I am not a swimmer. In fact, I suspect that putting me in a competitive pool would produce more embarrassment than sporting inspiration.But you do not need to understand every stroke, turn or split time to appreciate what South Africa’s swimmers have achieved. For years, this country has produced athletes capable of competing with the world’s best. World champions and record-breakers have emerged from a system that, on paper, should not be producing such quality results.The current Commonwealth Games have been no different. South Africa finished the swimming and para-swimming programme with 22 medals, including six gold, placing us second on the swimming medal table. Australia led with 76 medals, including 37 gold.The gap makes one curious.Is Australia simply producing more gifted swimmers? Or has it built a system capable of identifying, funding and developing far more of the talent within its population?The comparison exposes a very troubling reality.Australia does not wait for a major competition before scrambling to fund a team. It invests in swimming year after year. For 2025/26, the Australian federal government allocated approximately R227.6 million (A$19.58 million) to swimming, of which about R215.8 million (A$18.57 million) was directed towards able-bodied and para? high performance. This forms part of a wider system that also funds state institutes, academies and athlete-support services.Swimming South Africa is a very different matter.Grant incomeSwimming South Africa (SSA) recorded R10.59 million in grant income for 2024/25, but only R3.1 million was new funding from the department. A further R2.98 million from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and R4.2 million from the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) had been received in earlier years and was only counted once it was used. SASCOC contributed the remaining R303,912.In other words, most of the R10.59 million was old funding being reflected in the accounts, not new money received.More disturbing is the R9.53 million recorded in athlete contributions.These are not private-sector sponsorships or government grants. They are payments collected from athletes to fund their own activities; for example: a payment to fund a sporting tour or trip. SSA has confirmed to Parliament that some international tours are fully funded, some are partly subsidised and, where funding is unavailable, families carry the cost.However, there is no explanation of how the R9.53 million was divided between particular athletes, teams and competitions. That lack of detail is itself a problem. But the broader picture is unmistakable. In the same year that SSA received only R3.1 million in new cash from the national department, it collected more than three times that amount from athletes and their families.This is where talent gets priced out.We celebrate our swimmers as national heroes. We claim their victories as South African victories. Yet athletes and their families are helping to finance the pathway that allows them to represent the country.This is where the comments all over social media start making sense. Access to competitive swimming often starts with attending a school with a pool, joining an established club and receiving proper coaching. Most South African children never have those opportunities, while the costs of equipment, transport and travel to competitions narrow the pathway even further.Selection may ultimately be determined by times in the pool, but those times do not appear from nowhere. They are produced through years of access to functioning facilities, sufficient training hours and competition.InequalityThe inequality begins long before the race does. That unequal pathway is compounded by a national infrastructure failure.In 2024, SSA envisioned five high-performance centres supported by 20 school-based academies. By April 2025, it was speaking of 30 academies across Gauteng, the Western Cape, Gqeberha, East London and KwaZulu-Natal. Yet there is still no complete public list of what is operational, nor any national assessment of swimming facilities, as was requested by Parliament.The limited information available reveals a bleak picture. Only 32 of Johannesburg’s 57 public pools opened for the 2025/26 season. In December 2025, Buffalo City reported that only four of its six pools were being used, while Mdantsane NU2 and Joan Harrison remained closed. Mangaung had only three operating pools, with others requiring significant repairs. In Limpopo, it was reported in November 2025 that the two pools at the R22 million Makhuvha Sports Complex had never been used.Kings Park, Durban’s premier international aquatic venue, closed in November 2024 after storm damage. Approximately R42 million was allocated to the first phase of a broader R86 million rehabilitation, but procurement and cash-flow problems repeatedly delayed the work. The municipality was still reporting delays in May 2026.The unfinished Franschhoek High-Performance Centre was intended to become an international training base, with a heated 50-metre pool, a refurbished 25-metre pool and full elite facilities. Around R49.7 million was committed (R35 million from the NLC, R8.5 million from World Aquatics and R6.2 million from The Sports Trust) towards a project expected to need R111 million. Only the initial NLC funding was paid before further funding was halted amid an SIU investigation, which SSA initially denied.These are not simply broken recreational amenities. An athlete cannot be identified, coached or developed in a pool that is closed, empty or trapped indefinitely in procurement, construction or mismanagement.Taken together, these failures point to a much wider national problem. None proves corruption on its own, but repeated delays, escalating costs, unfinished projects and contradictory explanations demand far greater transparency and accountability.Weak managementUnderfunding cannot excuse weak management. SSA’s auditors warned that it remains dependent on donor support, yet the federation could not clearly tell Parliament how many athletes were funded, how many relied on their families or whether anyone was excluded because they could not afford to compete.This is where weak oversight becomes Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie’s failure.Federation autonomy cannot mean government indifference. A department transfers public money, sets compliance conditions and must monitor whether it produces functioning programmes, broader access and measurable development.A lax minister does not need to instruct a federation or council to manage badly or to enable weak management. Accepting incomplete reporting, tolerating delayed projects and imposing no consequences are enough to allow failure to continue.That is especially difficult to accept when the Department found almost R31 million for its 151-member FIFA World Cup programme: roughly ten times the new funding SSA received in its latest audited year. At the same time, several federations are still waiting for their 2026/27 allocations, despite the Minister assuring me, in response to a parliamentary question, that payments would not be delayed again..Read more:.Olympic athletes vie for gold and social media stardom in Paris.Our medals should be celebrated. They should not be used as proof that the system works. They show what exceptional athletes, coaches and families are achieving despite limited and unequal support.What they cannot show us is how many champions were never discovered because the pool was closed, the coach was absent, the travel was unaffordable or the family could no longer pay.South Africa does not lack swimming talent. It lacks equal access to the starting block.Our swimmers are carrying a system that should be carrying them.The Minister and SSA owe athletes, families and the country answers: about the money, the failures and the talent being left behind..*Leah Potgieter is a DA Member of Parliament, the party's spokesperson on Sport, Art and Culture, and former Member of the Mayoral Committee for Economic Development (including Johannesburg Property Company) and Group Corporate and Shared Services in the City of Johannesburg. Potgieter holds an LLB degree, and is passionate about football … and believes that understanding the lines is half the game, on and off the pitch..This article was first published by Daily friend and is republished with permission..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.

The medals we celebrate - and the champions South Africa may never discover

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