South Africa comprises of nine provinces and borders five other countries and encloses Lesotho within its own land area. It also has the Atlantic and Indian oceans as sea borders. South Africa made their debut at the 1930 Games. They participated from 1930-38 and 1950-58. Since the 1994 Games, South Africa has enjoyed uniterrupted participation.

South Africa at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games

South Africa finished eleventh at Glasgow 2026, the first Commonwealth Games staged with a reduced program of 10 sports. The country won 7 gold medals, along with 11 silver and 10 bronze for 28 medals in total, which makes them the second African country on the medal table after Nigeria.

The final medal standings, with South Africa's rank, are shown below:

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Australia 70 45 56 171
2 England 29 45 36 110
3 Canada 19 20 23 62
4 India 13 17 9 39
5 Scotland 13 9 17 39
6 New Zealand 10 14 12 36
7 Nigeria 10 7 7 24
8 Jamaica 10 4 5 19
9 Wales 9 10 12 31
10  Malaysia  8  3  5  16
11 South Africa   7  11  10  28

Trivia

  • The Republic of South Africa joined the Commonwealth in 1931 under the Statute of Westminster. Having left in 1961 it re-joined in 1994.
  • South Africa were seelcted to host the Commonwealth Games for the first time in 2022, but had to withdraw in 2017.