Editing Paintball (section)

=== South Africa ===
In South Africa, organised paintball has been played since the late 1980s. The only legal enforcement regarding paintball is the concealment of paintball (and [[airsoft]]) guns in public areas.<ref>{{cite web|title=Airsoft Guns|url=http://www.airsoftatlanta.com/Cybergun-Airsoft-s/150.htm|access-date=February 15, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301134619/http://www.airsoftatlanta.com/Cybergun-Airsoft-s/150.htm|archive-date=March 1, 2014}}</ref> There are no license requirements or age limitations in place, but with the threat of the implementation of the "Dangerous Weapons Act", this could change.{{when|date=November 2012}}

South Africa has seen a steady growth of the sport of paintball since its introduction. Recreational bushball is the most popular form throughout the country, but the last couple of years{{when|date=November 2012}} have seen a big increase in the popularity of speedball. The South African Paintball League has been in existence since 2002. During 2013 South Africa was invited to send a representative paintball team to the first ever Paintball World Cup held in Paris, France. The South African team got officially ranked 13th in the world.

Popular tournaments such as The Tippmann Challenge, D-Day and the Navy Festival SWAT Challenge, see hundreds of players from around the entire country participate.

The first ever public paintball performance in South Africa was held at the Swartkop Airshow during 2013. More than 80 paintball players took part in a simulated a counter terrorist raid on a weapons dealer.

Since 2009 the largest national speedball league in South Africa is the South African Regional Paintball League (SARPL)<ref>{{cite web |title=SARPL |url=https://www.sarpl.co.za/ |work=sarpl.co.za |access-date=February 15, 2014 |archive-date=January 11, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111034050/http://www.sarpl.co.za/ |url-status=live }}</ref> having over 500 members during 2014 and hosting both a three-man and five-man series events at one stage in 5 provinces (including Gauteng, Kwazulu Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and the Free State). The league hosted around 31 events per year on a regional and national level with the national finals that usually takes place during the beginning of December each year since its inception in 2013. The SARPL currently uses the NXl Mercy-to format and use their own ruleset based on the NXL rules as well as using the APPA<ref>{{cite web|title=America's #1 Paint Ball Event Registration System American Paintball Players Association|url=http://www.paintball-players.org/|publisher=American Paintball Players Association|access-date=February 15, 2014|archive-date=February 10, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140210023217/http://www.paintball-players.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> system for player classification.

The South African National Paintball and Airsoft Association (SANPA)<ref>{{cite web|title=SANPA|url=https://www.sanpa.co.za/|work=sanpa.co.za|access-date=June 26, 2021|archive-date=June 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210621130506/https://sanpa.co.za/|url-status=live}}</ref> is the national body looking after the sport of paintball and airsoft in South Africa and is an active member of the United Paintball Federation (UPBF) <ref>{{cite web|title=UPBF|url=https://www.upbf.net/|work=upbf.net|access-date=June 26, 2021|archive-date=September 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928110719/https://upbf.net/|url-status=live}}</ref> and also have committee members on both the ASTM as well as the SABS.

Since 2013 The South African National Paintball and Airsoft Association (SANPA) represented South Africa at the United Paintball Federation (UPBF) World Championship events in the Mens category with SANPA also being fortunate enough, in later years, to send over the first U16, U19, Women's and Veterans teams to represent South Africa.

During 2016 The South African National Paintball and Airsoft Association (SANPA) sent over the first U19 team to compete in the United Paintball Federation (UPBF) World Championships where the team missed out going into the finals due to a technicality in the rules which was subsequently updated by the organization to prevent future situations.

During 2018 the South African National Paintball and Airsoft Association (SANPA) sent over the first all female team to compete in the United Paintball Federation (UPBF) World Championships where they won the Women's 3-player category and brought South Africa the Gold.

2019 saw the South African National Paintball and Airsoft Association (SANPA) sent over teams in the U16, U19, Women's (3 and 5-player) as well as Mens and Veterans Categories to represent South Africa in all the categories at the United Paintball Federation (UPBF) Paintball World Championship.