The 2025 edition of the Winter National School Sport Championships (Winter NSSC) took place under beautiful winter weather in Durban from 12 to 14 July 2025 at various sporting fields within the UKZN Howard College campus in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal Province. The Winter NSSC was hosted jointly by the Departments of Basic Education (DBE) and Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC), in collaboration with the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Departments of Education (KZNDoE) and Sport, Arts and Culture (KZNDSAC), delivered surprises and excellent performances.
The more than 1,337 athletes from across all nine provinces who participated in this year’s Winter NSSC, featured some of the most promising young talent from across the country, including learners with special needs who battled for various championship honours in football, netball and rugby.
This year’s results were not only about the usual winners, as other provinces came out guns blazing this year and were rewarded for their good performances.
The learner’s excellent performance in football will not be in vain because an opportunity exists for 18 boys and 18 girls to be selected for the national phase (Winter NSSC) to represent South Africa in the COSAFA Schools Football Championships.
The Rugby Scouts were also there to watch the games with the intention of selecting players who will be recommended to provincial teams. Several players who participated in previous editions of the School Rugby games are currently part of at least eight provincial teams.
The final medal standings were led by the Western Cape followed by the host province, KwaZulu-Natal, with Limpopo and the Northern Cape finishing the championships without any medals at number 8 and 9 respectively.
The netball competition was contested in 3 categories of Mild Intellectual Disability (MID); Severe Intellectual Disability (SID); and learners who mostly have profound hearing loss which implies very little or no hearing (DEAF). The MID category was won by the Western Cape with Free State as runners-up; the SID category was won by the Eastern Cape and Gauteng were runners-up and the DEAF category was won by KZN with Gauteng in second place.
In the girl’s final, KwaZulu-Natal beat Mpumalanga girls 4-2 on penalties and the boy’s final saw Free State beat Mpumalanga 5-3 on penalties to clinch the 2025 U-15 School Football competition.
The pear-shaped ball game of rugby was won by the Western Cape in both the Boys and Girls U-15 competitions.