Out with the old and hopefully, in with the new
THE Department of Sports, Arts and Culture (DSAC)’s decision to derecognise the current leadership of Basketball South Africa and effectively place it under administration marks the culmination of nearly 20 years of poor management. Over this period, basketball has been in a steady decline. The sport now suffers from the absence of nationwide high-level competitions, the intermittent participation of junior and senior national teams and clubs in continental tournaments, and the lack of sustainable development programmes.
Domestically, this decline has reduced the popularity of the game, with potential players choosing better-organised codes such as cricket, rugby, soccer, and netball. Leadership failures have also allowed less-resourced continental peers to overtake South Africa.
DSAC’s unprecedented decision to take over BSA – with the support of the South African Sports Confederation, Olympic and Paralympic Committee (SASCOC) and FIBA Africa – stems from years of malgovernance. As a basketball community, we must now ask how the sport reached this point.
When one speaks to older South African basketball enthusiasts, they recall with pride that from the 1990s to the early 2000s, basketball was the fastest-growing sport in the country. The creation of the now-defunct Professional Basketball League (PBL) exemplified this growth. The league offered elite competition, showcased the country’s best talent, and attracted seasoned players from the US, Europe, and other parts of Africa. Thriving varsity and district leagues, school competitions, and heralded interprovincial tournaments complemented this ecosystem, enabling players across age categories to showcase their talent. BSA and the government supported these platforms, while local conglomerates such as ABSA and Engen, alongside multinationals including Coca-Cola and ESPN, joined the momentum as sponsors.
However, from the mid-2000s, this golden age began to lose its shine. Early warning signs of financial misappropriation and administrative incompetence were either ignored, while potential whistleblowers were allegedly blacklisted from participating in the sport. These failures contributed to basketball becoming increasingly exclusive. As trust in federation-administered events eroded, sponsors withdrew, and privately administered, pay-to-play initiatives proliferated. At the same time, a widening skills gap emerged among players, coaches, administrators, referees, and table officials. BSA’s failure to provide upskilling opportunities played a central role in this decline. As a result, even potentially transformative initiatives such as the Basketball National League, the Women’s Basketball National League, and the short-lived Varsity Basketball competition reflected the broader structural challenges facing the domestic game.
Many observers argue that DSAC’s decision arrived a decade too late, pointing to the 2016/17 SASCOC performance audit of BSA, which found that the federation had failed to meet any of its governance or development objectives. Nevertheless, despite years of political lobbying, co-optation of rivals, and the flouting of constitutionally mandated rules by BSA leadership to retain power, 2024 marked the beginning of the end of this period of ineptitude. DSAC’s decision to strip BSA of the right to host the U-18 Afrobasket competition in Pretoria exposed the federation’s incompetence and dysfunction. This was further highlighted during a February 2025 Q&A session at the National Assembly. The final blow came when BSA attempted to hold what much of the basketball community viewed as a flawed election designed to preserve the status quo – an effort halted only through DSAC’s intervention.
BSA’s derecognition represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lay the foundation for a new basketball ecosystem in South Africa. Achieving this will require a complete dismantling of the existing dispensation, which no longer aligns with the sport’s potential or current socio-economic realities. A simultaneous, two-pronged approach – combining top-down and bottom-up strategies – should therefore be adopted.
This process should allow the politically driven component of the intervention to run for at least two years. In the short term, the government will need to carry most of the responsibility while working to restore trust and confidence among potential partners and stakeholders. The process must also remain inclusive and participatory, with consultations held across all provinces and basketball districts. Input should extend beyond basketball enthusiasts to include actors from other sports, business groups, entrepreneurs, the entertainment and media industries, independent professionals, educators, social and healthcare workers, and NGOs.
With the support of DSAC and SASCOC, stakeholders should also establish a mentorship programme with federations such as Netball South Africa to rebuild BSA’s organisational capacity. Meanwhile, FIBA Africa can facilitate engagement with federations in Angola, Botswana, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, and Senegal to better understand how these countries have sustained basketball development despite significant challenges.
Most importantly, the refoundation process should afford minimal opportunities for current members of the BSA administration to participate. Basketball requires a genuine fresh start, and reinserting individuals who presided over the sport’s decline would undermine that objective. Ideally, the new leadership structure should balance professional and technical expertise, with political awareness, ensuring that South Africa reclaims its rightful position as one of the continent’s leading basketball growth and development hubs.
Out with the old and hopefully, in with the new Read More »
