BY Nkosazana Ngwadla
Spar Proteas goalkeeper Phumza Maweni is hoping to make the final squad of coach Norma Plummer’s 12 players who will represent South Africa at the tournament.
The Vitality Netball World Cup 2023 will be the sixteenth staging of the premier competition in international netball. The tournament will be held from Friday, 28 July to Sunday, 6 August at the International Convention Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. This will mark the first time the tournament will be held in Africa.
Phumza Maweni is a South African netball player in the Netball Superleague in the UK, representing Team Bath Netball.
She was raised in Cala, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. She went on to compete for the Kingdom Stars and Southern Stings in the South African Brutal Fruit Netball Cup and has also played several seasons in England’s Netball Superleague, first for the Loughborough Lightning and later for the Severn Stars.
Phumza’s exceptional form in the local South African league led to national team coach Norma Plummer calling on her to be signed by foreign clubs in higher profile leagues. She has featured for the South Africa national netball team on several occasions, most notably in the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
She was signed by the Sunshine Coast Lightning in Australia ahead of the 2019 season and spent three seasons with the Suncorp Super Netball club, playing all 47 matches. She then signed for Team Bath Netball in England in December 2021 and played for them during the 2022 Superleague season.
