Netball South Africa (NSA) president Mami Diale says the federation’s focal point for 2026 will be about delivering performance outcomes across all levels of the sport.
The year begins with the Spar Challenge for both senior national teams.
The African champions will wrap their 2025 international season against England and Australia respectively.
The three test match series will run from 29 and 31 January to 1 February 2026, at the Ellis Park Arena in Johannesburg.
The men’s matches will be the curtain raisers for the main women’s matches on all the three test matches.
The last time the Spar Proteas and the Vitality Roses met was at last year’s Vitality Nations Cup, where Jenny van Dyk’s side managed to edge the English on home soil in the group stages, but fell at the last hurdle in the final to take the silver medal.
However the men’s Proteas will be facing the Kelpies for the first time.
Although South Africa have participated in the Men's Fast5 Netball World Series, the two sides have not played against one another in the traditional netball format.
Diale says for both South African sides, starting the year with positive results will set the tone for the rest of the year.
“Starting with the Spar Proteas, I think we have given them enough chances of training and gave the coaches enough chance to look at the players. We took them to Jamaica, England, New Zealand and Australia. They became the champions of Africa in Malawi.
"By now they should know what they want from the players and us because we have given them the resources and support. We just need (a good) performance. They need to perform in a way that they beat England.
"The men never disappoint but it will be the first time they play in the Challenge on home soil especially against Australia. This is the start of preparing them for the first Men’s World Championship. We are testing them with Australia.
"We are expecting them to perform, they need to use the home advantage to perform. Performance is what we need, a win is what we need,” says Diale.
The men’s side might be going into the series with a new technical staff. NSA are currently looking to restructure the coaching staff of the team as well as that of the Spar Baby Proteas.
Jabulani Vilane has won three back-to-back Africa Netball Cup titles as the coach while Precious Mthembu led the national Under-21 side into the top four of the Netball World Youth Cup for the first time at last year’s edition.
The former Director of Demarcation and Structures believes that this change will not cause any disruptions in the team ahead of the test series.
“Normally coaches are appointed for three to four years or they finish the World Cup. The men’s coach was appointed for three and Under-21 coaches had finished the World Cup. If they are still fit, they will be reappointed but if we feel like the interview procedure shows us people who need to be given a chance, we will definitely do that.
"The good part with our system is that the people that have applied are people that are in our system. Our selectors are the same people who are also coaches so they understand the system. When I look at the candidates that have applied are mostly people who have been part of the team from the beginning, so they understand the team.
"They understand the structures because they have been part of male’s netball. We want to start the year properly and procedurally. We want to move with it that way until the end of our team,” she explained.
Men’s netball also remains a priority for the new leadership. Diale says the federation will work hard to secure a sponsor for the men’s game, including the senior national team, the only national team without a naming right partner.
“We hope to get sponsorship for the males in terms of the Males’ Championships and the national team. A sponsor that will have the naming rights for the team. If we can achieve that we will know we would have done well,” she said.
Diale is setting a stern test for the senior women’s team. The Proteas had a disappointing showing at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where they finished sixth after losing to Uganda in the fifth place playoff match.
The president says after setting a mandate for the Baby Proteas to finish in the top four of the World Cup, she will expect a similar result for the senior team.
“As much as we have to face the reality that we don’t have fulltime players like other countries that have fulltime players but we are expecting a high performance.
"We give the team an opportunity to play with the top four in the world why can’t they get into the top four or three (at the Games). We set that for the Under-21 and they came back in the top four,” she said.