Prior to the formation of the SAFA Women's League in 2019, a series of predecessor competitions crowned an annual national women's champion club for South Africa.
Inter-Provincial Women’s Championship (1976–1990) Women's football started in 1976 by founding an Inter-Provincial Championship until 1990. Natal United FC have a record of 9 championships.
SAFA Women's Championship (2001-2009) From 2001 until 2009, a series of championships were organized by SAFA between the champion of each SAFA Region or province. In 2001-2002 this was known as the Sanlam National Women's Championship and involved champions of SAFA's then-25 regions. In 2005-06, the national playoffs were known as the Vodacom Women's League. In 2008-09, this event was replaced by the Absa Women's League, which later became SAFA's regional league (sub-provincial).
Sasol Women’s National League (2009–2019) The
Sasol Women's League is a provincial women's football league which was formed in 2009 when Sasol and the South African Football Association (SAFA) went into partnership for women's football in South Africa. The league runs separate leagues for each of the nine provinces, and brings their champions together to play the National Championship, and its winner is promoted to the SAFA Women's League. Following the formation of the SAFA Women's League, the Sasol League became its second-tier / feeder league and no longer crowned the national champion.
SAFA Women's League (2019–present) Following rumors as early as 2017 of SAFA establishing a professional women's league, the association indeed announced the formation of the SAFA Women's National League in August 2019. The new league replaced the previous inter-regional play (which had been limited only to the national championship tournament) with a national double-round-robin league of the country's top clubs. The league's first season was played in
2019-20, and began with the previous season's respective provincial champions, plus two women's affiliates of
PSL clubs and the university league champion, as the initial 12 members. The initial season's start date was pushed back to August 2019 in order to accommodate
Banyana Banyana's participation at the
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. In the first two seasons, there was no relegation: 2 teams were promoted to make 14 in 2020, and another 2 were promoted to make 16 in 2021, with relegation then beginning in the
2022 season. ==Champions==