Netball South Africa has appointed Adam Brooke as its new chief executive officer – a hire that carries considerable weight given the federation’s turbulent recent history and the scale of the rebuilding task that lies ahead.
The appointment, confirmed in mid-February after what the federation described as an extensive recruitment process, fills a vacancy that had existed since November 2025, when the contract of Brooke’s predecessor Modiegi Komane came to an end. According to Times Live, Komane’s tenure was marked by instability at the top of the organisation, compounded by the suspension of then-president Cecilia Molokwane by World Netball in April 2025 on charges relating to excessive use of federation resources and intimidation. Mami Diale was subsequently elected president in October 2025, and the appointment of Brooke is her administration’s first major executive decision.
Brooke, 49, is notable for being the first man to hold the CEO position at Netball South Africa. As reported by SABC Sport, his four-year contract runs until December 2029, aligned with Diale’s term of office — a deliberate structural decision intended to ensure continuity, given that Komane’s contract was ultimately only extended by a single year. Brooke officially assumed his duties on 16 March 2026.
His CV spans more than two decades across multiple sporting codes, including cycling, rugby, tennis, boxing and football, with involvement in events as varied as the Tour de France, the Africa Cup of Nations, the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games in London, the Absa Cape Epic and the Rugby World Cup. He has worked across agencies, rights holders, sponsors, operators and venues at both local and international levels — a breadth of commercial experience that the federation’s new executive believes is precisely what a sport still fighting for sponsorship and visibility requires.
Brooke has outlined a three-part mandate for his tenure. SuperSport reports that he plans to commercialise and professionalise the sport more aggressively, improve on-court performance with a target of competing for a medal at the 2029 World Cup against the likes of Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and England, and drive grassroots development in partnership with the Ministry of Sport and federations such as SASCOC. He has been candid about his limited direct netball experience, framing it as an asset rather than a liability — his intention being to unify the federation’s existing institutional knowledge with external commercial expertise.
The governance dimension of the role is as pressing as the commercial one. Diale has stated publicly that delivering on the federation’s mandate requires stable, high-performing leadership — language that signals just how much instability the organisation has had to absorb. Brooke’s contract length, his cross-code credentials and the emphasis his appointment places on governance reform and commercial growth suggest that NSA is looking to close a difficult chapter and reposition netball — a sport with a substantial participation base in South Africa — for a more structured and better-funded future.