BY: Zanele Makola
The third annual national championships took place between the 27th of June and the 3rd of July 2024, hosted by Gauteng at Hoerskool Eldoraigne.
Federation of Dance, Drill, Cheerleading, Majorettes South Africa(FDDCMSA) was founded in 2021 during covid-19’s lockdown. Competitions were held virtually and not a lot of people were aware of the federation. This federation is very inclusive because male athletes are allowed to compete.
In 2022, the very first national championships were held in Bloemfontein, Free State, with only 3 provinces involved and in 2023, 1 more province joined, and all gathered in Cape Town, Western Cape for the second national championships.
8 out of 9 provinces were part of the third national championships, and the provinces includes Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu-Natal, Western Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga, Northwest, Limpopo and Eastern Cape. 37 teams came out of the 8 provinces. One of the founders, Mr. Francois Marais said, “When we first started, we only had 523 items on the scoresheet and this year we have 936 items. Our federation has grown drastically from the past 3 years, and we are looking forward to adding the missing province.”
The 7 days of competitions were broken down as follow, Thursday was the opening ceremony, Friday was mini formations semi-finals and military drill large semi-finals. Saturday it was groups semi-finals and military drill small semi-finals.
Sunday, the competition took place at ACPP hall, and it was all pom final competitions and Monday was solo competitions with their finals on Tuesday. The last day was on Wednesday, and it was military small and large finals and also the closing ceremony. Overall, 3 teams from Gauteng won the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively, Hoerskool Eldoraigne, Roodenation and Dower glen Panthers.
The president of the FDDCMSA, Mrs. Christine Pretorius, also the head coach of Hoerskool Eldoraigne, was happy with how smoothly the national championships went and also announced the venue for the 4th annual national championship, “I am honored to be part of this amazing federation and its inclusivity. I am looking forward to our 4th annual national’s championship that will be hosted by North West,” she said.
