Celebrating 80 years!

SACC has reached an amazing milestone! This is our 80th year of being a Southern Africa Registering Association - priding ourselves in knowing that, with us, the health and welfare of all cats comes first.

A stunning white Persian bred by a SACC Breeder and owned by a SACC Exhibitor.

Quoted from The Observer’s Book of Cats, written by Grace Pond (1959):

"It is very difficult to trace the history of the domestic cat in South Africa, little being known, apart from the fact that the first missionaries and settlers brought their pets with them. Most native villages had their dogs, but a cat was a rare sight, and if one was seen, it usually came from a European home.

Several of the animal societies, such as the Royal Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Our Dumb Friends League and the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals have branches in wide-spread parts of Africa, where cats are among the many animals receiving attention.

The interest of the pedigree cats in South Africa is looked after by the South African Cat Union. This was founded in 1946 primarily to register cats, to encourage pedigree breeding and cat shows, and is associated with the British Governing Council. Apparently, there were very few pedigree cats in South Africa to that date, but today there are many excellent examples from a number of the world-wide recognised breeds. The Siamese appears to be the most popular, outnumbering all others at the show, while excellent Cream and Blue long hairs, all breed from imported English cats, are making a name for themselves. There do not appear to be any British Shorthairs and very few household pets are shown. In such a large country, running a cat show is quite an achievement, and the four cat clubs, the Western Province Cat Club, the Siamese Cat Society of South Africa, the Rand Cat Club and the Natal Cat Club, are doing fine work in promoting interest in pedigree cats."

 The South African Cat Union changed it's name to the Governing Council of Associated Cat Clubs shortly afterwards and in 1996 had another name change, this time to the Southern Africa Cat Council i.e. SACC due to the fact that we had members in Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Namibia.

3 of the 4 original cat clubs are still part of SACC- in fact the Rand Cat Club will be hosting the 1st show of our 80 year celebratory year.

The Siamese Cat Club is now known as the Transvaal Cat Society and the Western Province Cat Club is still the anchor club in the Cape. Although the Natal Cat Club is no longer part of SACC, it has been replaced by KZN's Provincial Cat Society.

SACC also has 3 other Cat Clubs, namely, Cat Fanciers Club, Eastern Cape Cat Club and Northern Cape/Free State Cat Club.

SACC has come a long way since 1946 and is now the only Southern Africa Cat Organisation belonging to the internationally renowned World Cat Congress (WCC) and we are also very proud of the fact that the present WCC President, Jan van Rooyen, is also the current SACC President.

SACC bred cats could certainly compete on the world stage - our Breeders concentrate on breeding to the Breed Standard as well as prioritising the health aspects of their breed, including genetic screening.

SACC Judges are well respected world-wide due to the extensive training given and the regular presentations given by the Judges Council. SACC Judges who have relocated to other countries have been absorbed into the leading world cat organisations such as TICA (The International Cat Association) and WCF (World Cat Federation).

Our new Logo celebrating our milestone. Designed and executed by Andrei Esterhuizen of the Transvaal cat Society Committee.