Hosts Cape Town slipped up for the first time on the third day of the SPAR National Netball Championships at Stellenberg High School on Saturday, leaving Tshwane as the only undefeated senior A section team in the tournament.
The Pretoria side, who were champions from 2018 to 2020 but didn’t even reach the semi-finals in 2025, defeated Cape Town 59-52 in their first match of the day before going on to beat the visiting Namibian side 54-50.
SPAR Proteas player Ine-Mari Venter has returned to the Tshwane side for the first time since 2020 and said afterwards: “It’s always a tough match. The nerves are always there.
“They’re good in attack and good in defence, so you have to bring it all over the court… It’s always tough coming up against them, and I think they had a little bit of the crowd with them as well, which is a nice thing about playing in Cape Town for them. But it was a good game, tight match, which I enjoyed, and just glad we got the win.”
Cape Town rallied later in the day, coming back from a four-goal deficit in the first quarter to beat the Dr Kenneth Kaunda side 53-41.
Speaking about the earlier loss, Cape Town wing defence Ziyanda Mwezo said: “I think we weren’t really locked in. I won’t lie – I don’t really know what happened. But we went back and we did our corrections, and then we got the result now and the win.
Mwezo remains confident her side can still lift the trophy in front of their home crowd.
“We just need to stick to our game plan, and we just need to communicate under pressure, like what we did in this game… I’m really, really confident. We have a really strong team. With this team we have now, we will go to the final… and we’re on home ground, so we definitely have to lift the trophy.”
Meanwhile, in another echo of last year’s tournament, four-time defending champions Johannesburg followed Friday’s loss to Cape Town with a thrilling 48-all draw against Mangaung – the same fixture that ended in a draw in the round-robin stage in 2025. Johannesburg squandered a nine-goal lead in the final quarter as the Free State side, renowned for their late comebacks, did it again, fighting back to claim a share of the spoils.
Frustrated Johannesburg coach Elsje Jordaan said afterwards: “Competition is fierce, the teams are good and it’s on the day, the team that takes their opportunities. But the week is still long. There’s still a lot of netball to be played.
“It feels a bit like a repeat, but this is a brand new team… We’re trying to build and breed new players. And this is what they need. These are the type of games they need, the pressure. This is where big players are made, and that’s how you see how they cope under pressure.”
Johannesburg later claimed a 53-40 victory over Nelson Mandela Bay to ensure they ended the day in fourth position on the log, still in semi-final contention.
Mangaung also secured the full two points in their later match after beating the Alfred Nzo team 43-16 to finish the day in second position.
There was much celebration for the eThekwini side who secured their first victory of the championships by also beating the Eastern Cape’s Alfred Nzo team 51-42.
Having started well against several of the more fancied sides, but then losing their way in the later stages of the match, eThekwini centre/wing attack Xolile Shange was thrilled her side had managed to stay calm and secure the win.
“This is actually amazing. I feel like this is really going to boost the girls’ confidence,” she said. “We really wanted to make sure that we better our performance each day. So, I really think today the girls showed up and it was really good.
“I think in the previous matches, what happened is, every time the other team defended our plan A, even though we do have plan B, we struggled to adapt and actually change things on court. But today we did exactly that, which actually felt so good.”
In the Under-21 A section, the unbeaten two-time defending champions, Johannesburg, coached by former SPAR Proteas coach Bongi Msomi, inflicted a first defeat of the tournament on Mangaung, beating them 47-34.
Watching on from the sidelines on Saturday was coach of the SPAR Proteas Jenny van Dyk, who expressed her excitement at the quality of netball on display at the SPAR National Netball Championships.
“What I truly love about this competition is how unpredictable it is, and how competitive the teams are at the moment,” she said.
“You have great momentum shifts, you have players that really need to keep their composure under pressure, and it’s really what we need. There’s also quite a lot of young talent coming through as well, which is very exciting.”
Results
Senior A section
Nelson Mandela Bay 43 – 54 Dr Kenneth Kaunda
Cape Town 52 – 59 Tshwane
Johannesburg 48 – 48 Mangaung
Alfred Nzo 42 – 51 eThekwini
Dr Kenneth Kaunda 41 – 53 Cape Town
Tshwane 54 – 50 Namibia
Nelson Mandela Bay 40 – 53 Johannesburg
eThekwini 35 – 58 Botswana
Mangaung 43 – 16 Alfred Nzo
Under-21 A section
Dr Kenneth Kaunda 32 – 54 Royal Bafokeng
Johannesburg 47 – 34 Mangaung
Tshwane 57 – 33 Dr Kenneth Kaunda
Ekurhuleni 38 – 51 Royal Bafokeng
Cape Town 35 – 52 Johannesburg
Picture credit: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
