When the Spar Proteas take the court in Nairobi, Kenya, for the Africa Netball Cup 2026 from 19 to 26 September, the scoreboard will tell one story. Behind it sits another, written over decades by two women whose work seldom makes the highlights reel: Africa Netball Treasurer Martha Lungu-Sichone and Vice President Malebo Raditladi-Nkgakile.
Their portfolios sit at opposite ends of the organisation, finance on one side and safeguarding on the other, but the pair share a conviction that governance, athlete welfare and commercial strategy form one system rather than three departments. As the continental showpiece approaches, that thinking moves into public view.
For South Africa, the tournament arrives with a subplot of its own. Netball South Africa named a fresh 12-player squad in Pretoria on Tuesday 25 August, with Kamogelo Maseko as captain and head coach Jenny van Dyk resting senior players after the Glasgow Commonwealth Games to build depth ahead of the 2027 Netball World Cup in Sydney.
Several established names are absent, and the defending champions travel with combinations yet to be tested together at this level. The squad assembles in Johannesburg on Monday 14 September before flying to Nairobi on Wednesday 16 September, giving a young group under a new captain barely a week together before the opening whistle.
“We have just returned from Glasgow and saw enough with the players that we had, we now have an opportunity to assess new players and see what we can build with them.”
Spar Proteas Head Coach, Jenny van Dyk
A squad built for the future needs a tournament built to last, and that is where Lungu-Sichone’s work begins. Re-elected Africa Netball Treasurer for the 2024 to 2027 term, she brings a rare combination of financial expertise and lived sporting experience, with a netball journey the organisation describes as spanning more than four decades.
She played in the 1990s before moving into administration, served as Treasurer of Netball Zambia from 2012 to 2016, and stepped onto the continental stage as Africa Netball Treasurer from 2016 to 2019 before returning for the 2021 to 2023 term and again for the current cycle.
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Her leadership reached its national peak as President of Netball Zambia from 2020 to 2023, a period in which the senior team won the 2023 Africa Netball Cup and the U21 side qualified for its first Netball Youth World Cup in 2024.
Africa Netball frames those milestones as the product of deliberate planning and governance structures rather than isolated success. It is a reminder that the tournament South Africa is preparing for is itself the product of planning that began long before any squad was named.
“Strong governance is the backbone of any successful sport because it creates trust and accountability across all levels.”
Africa Netball Treasurer Martha Lungu-Sichone
Her role carries more weight as women’s sport enters a phase defined less by proving its value and more by scaling it through structured investment and credible leadership. For Africa Netball, that means financial frameworks strong enough to support member federations and to deliver competitions such as the Africa Netball Cup 2026 with credibility and long-term value.
“We must ensure that every opportunity for growth is supported by sound financial systems that can sustain it.”
Martha Lungu-Sichone
Raditladi-Nkgakile approaches the same goal from the human side. A former athlete across several sport codes including netball, she progressed to COSANA-accredited umpire and then to national roles at the Botswana National Sports Commission in marketing, sport development and special projects.
As President of the Botswana Netball Association she placed governance and compliance at the centre of her leadership, empowering 230 coaches on the fundamental principles of coaching, licensing 16 of them and upgrading umpires, while committing to the grassroots Re Ba Bona Ha programme under a long-term athlete development plan. Her tenure delivered Botswana’s first Netball Nations Cup title in Singapore in 2022.
Vice President of Africa Netball since 2019, she has built a safeguarding record that dates back to the 2014 Africa Youth Games and includes coordinating the NIF Safe Inclusive Sport Programme across the continent, shaping frameworks for ANOCA Zone VI and AUSC Region 5, and earning IOC safeguarding certification and train-the-trainer accreditation.
Most recently she received the SSI Celia Brackenridge Award for Service to Safe Sport. South African audiences will recall her as Welfare and Safeguarding Manager at the 2023 Netball World Cup in Cape Town, and she served as Head of Safeguarding and Youth Programmes for the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone this year.
“Athletes must feel safe, supported, and valued because that is where true performance begins.“
Africa Netball Vice President, Malebo Raditladi-Nkgakile
Her argument is that activity alone does not amount to development. Progress, she says, comes when events rest on governance, compliance and holistic talent strategies. “Events are an opportunity to showcase not only talent but the standards and values that define our sport,” she said.
In Nairobi the two mandates meet. A rotated South African squad stepping into a continental title defence is precisely the kind of structured opportunity Lungu-Sichone has in mind. “We are seeing growth at all levels of the game and the focus now is to convert that into structured opportunities for athletes and federations,” she said.
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Netball South Africa president Mami Diale sees it the same way from the federation’s side, backing Van Dyk’s selection and restating the intention to bring the title home. “If ever there was an opportune time for the coach to assess the capabilities of other players, this is it,” she said.
Together, the pair’s leadership tracks Africa Netball’s stated aims of growing participation, strengthening governance and building a sustainable future, with the tournament in Kenya intended as a platform for performance, digital engagement and greater visibility for women’s netball. Whatever the Spar Proteas’ new combinations produce on court, the framework around them is designed to outlast the final whistle.
“Growth must be inclusive and it must be protected because the future of the sport depends on how we invest in people today.”
Malebo Raditladi-Nkgakile
Original Copy: Limar, with editing by gsport
Main Photo Caption: Africa Netball Treasurer Martha Lungu-Sichone (pictured) and Vice President Malebo Raditladi-Nkgakile lead the finance, governance and safeguarding structures behind the continental showpiece as leading netball nations prepare for the Africa Netball Cup 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya, from 19 to 26 September 2026. All Photos: Africa Netball
Photo 2 Caption: Malebo Raditladi-Nkgakile has served as Vice President since 2019 and holds the SSI Celia Brackenridge Award for Service to Safe Sport.
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