Watchdog Finds Sponsorship Gap Holding Back SA Sportswomen

The Commission for Gender Equality’s September 2026 report has put institutional weight behind what South African sportswomen have long reported: women’s sport in the country has historically received less funding, less media coverage and less institutional support, with limited corporate sponsorship among the barriers identified. The findings confirm a structural funding gap that persists despite the talent on display. Against that regulatory backdrop, it is often the smaller, personal sponsorship deals, rather than the headline corporate contracts, that quietly sustain athletes’ careers.

That is the context in which gsport.co.za recently asked its community to recognise the personal sponsors making a tangible difference in athletes’ sporting journeys. The responses, the platform reports, were authentic and sincere, pointing to a simple conclusion: backing a sportswoman can change her trajectory permanently.

Among those acknowledged is BMW Bryanston, which has come in as a personal sponsor for rising motorsport competitor Morgan Jacobs as she pursues a career in GT Racing. Motorsport is notoriously expensive, making individual backing crucial in a discipline where costs can shut out talent. The partnership has already delivered a milestone. Jacobs has moved up to Class C of the NA Cup in the BMW M Performance Parts Race Series, a step the dealership has celebrated as the next challenge in her development. Jacobs says the support is helping her achieve her dreams in ways she could not have imagined, as she chases her GT Racing ambition with BMW Bryanston behind her.

Nutrition brand 32Gi has also stepped into the gap. The South African endurance sports nutrition company, which serves as the official nutrition partner of the Comrades Marathon from 2026 to 2028, is backing Lindiwe Isabel Mchunu as she prepares to represent South Africa at the IFBB World Men’s and Women’s Championships in Santa Susanna, near Barcelona, from 29 October to 2 November 2026. Mchunu, a sports scientist from Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal, took up bodybuilding in 2020 and also competes in powerlifting. She finished second at the IFBB World Fitness Challenge Championships in Spain in 2025 and represents Body Culture Health and Wellness. Away from competition she is a national-level assistant football referee and a cycling coach.

This is the first time Mchunu has had a supplement sponsor at an international championship. Her assessment of the broader system is blunt: South African athletes have the talent and skill, but too few sponsors. With 32Gi’s support, she says, she is not doing this journey alone.

Grassroots development has its own backers. Rising cricketer Jess Candler highlighted what she calls the life-changing impact of sponsors investing in the pipeline that supports upcoming talent, giving a double shout-out to PR Cricket SA, a cricket equipment range, and Durban sports retailer Solly M Sports. The Howick High School learner has already played senior provincial cricket for the KZN Inland women’s team, the Tuskers, at the CSA Provincial Women’s Competition in Oudtshoorn in 2024, where she scored a then personal-best 56 not out against Boland. She was named Player of the Match at the CSA U19 Girls’ Cricket Week at Kearsney College for an unbeaten 66 against Border, was among the nominees for CSA Girls U19 Player of the Tournament, and Cricket South Africa has included her in its SA U19 Women’s national training camps.

Candler argues that such sponsorship provides opportunities and support that are invaluable, and that many of her achievements would not have been possible without it. Her sponsors, she says, support the growth and development of many young cricketers and allow athletes to pursue their goals and reach their full potential.

Meanwhile, for athletes still struggling to secure backing, gsport points to the example of Kgothatso Montjane. In 2018, the wheelchair tennis star was still chasing Grand Slam glory and sponsors were reluctant to back her. Working alongside Emy Casaletti-Bwalya, she rebuilt her brand around the #RoadToGreatness campaign, and the titles followed: four Grand Slam doubles crowns with Japan’s Yui Kamiji, at Roland Garros in 2023 and 2025, the US Open in 2023 and Wimbledon in 2024. Today Montjane is a four-time Grand Slam doubles champion whose brand attracts sponsors in its own right, with a maiden singles major in her sights. Her case, gsport suggests, shows that building a professional brand pays off; a full sponsorship masterclass by Casaletti-Bwalya appears in the gsport archive in this edition.

The platform’s closing message to brands is direct: those that support women’s sport will in turn be supported by the community that follows it. Whether the Commission for Gender Equality’s findings will translate into the institutional backing athletes say they lack remains the open question.