South Africa

South Africa is a country at the southern end of Africa. It has a population of about 49,000,000 and its capitals are Bloemfontein, Cape Town and Pretoria.

History of hockey in South Africa
The South African Ice Hockey Association was founded in 1936. A year later it joined the International Ice Hockey Federation.

The first league was played in the late 1930's, and in 1938 South Africa's hockey players played their first international game as they took on a team from Toronto.

Organisation
The South African National Team was created as the South African Ice Hockey Association gained its International Ice Hockey Federation membership on February 25 1937. Despite this early admission, it took almost 25 years before a South African squad took part in the World Championships. The team made its debuts at the 1961 World Championship on March 3rd 1961, as they were beaten 12-3 by the Yugoslav National Team. The South Africans finished 5th in the Group C, and 19th overall in the world. The team was absent from competition for five years before returning for the 1966 World Championship, where they once again finished 19th in the world, and this time, third in the Group C.

South Africa would then pull out from competition until 1992, where they returned with a senior squad. Since 1992, South Africa has sent a contesting team every year in at least one of the three annual Men's World Championships competitions, and failed only twice, 1996 and 1997, to take part in the senior World Championship.

South Africa has, so far, been able to earn promotion to a higher division of play on two distinct occasions. They first accessed Division II via promotion in 2006 after finishing second in the 2005 World Championship Division III. The journey in Division II lasted a single year, with the South Africans losing all five games and finishing sixth and last in the group stage. The second time the national team had a shot at Division II play was in 2009, following another second place finish at the 2008 World Championship Division III. There again, the adventure at the upper level only lasted one tournament before the team was back in Division III.

National Teams

 * South Africa national ice hockey team
 * South Africa men's national junior ice hockey team
 * South Africa men's national U-18 ice hockey team
 * South Africa women's national ice hockey team

League

 * Gauteng League