A part-time Sport Medicine program for medically qualified persons was introduced at the University of Cape Town in 1990 followed by similar programs being introduced by the Universities of Pretoria and Free State. Graduates from these programs formed the core group who identified the need to establishment a college to represent this speciality, and who initiated the process with a meeting of sports physicians in Sun City in March 1997 where a steering committee was elected with Professor Martin Schwellnus as the Chairman. Two years later, Prof Schwellnus engaged the CMSA in a conversation for the inclusion of the college within the structures of the CMSA. Over the next years, Prof Schwellnus and the elected committee members tirelessly pursued their objective and continued to engage with the CMSA, Health Professional Council of South Africa, the National Department of Health and relevant South African universities. A formal application by the CMSA to the HPCSA for the registration of the speciality in Sport and Exercise Medicine was made in October 2011 with approval received in May 2016 and culminating in the Department of Health publishing amendments to the Health Professions Act to include the speciality sports and exercise medicine on 27 March 2020.Prof Schwellnus is Director of the Institute of Sport, Exercise Medicine and Lifestyle Research Institute at the University of Pretoria, Director of the international Olympic Committee (IOC) Research Centre in South Africa and a longstanding member of the IOC Medical Commission. He is a sport and exercise medicine physician and specialises in the prevention, treatment and management of illness and injury related to the participation in sport and exercise.The interim council members will execute a number of key processes such as drafting the constitution of the CSEM and amongst the most important of these processes, is establishing an inclusive process whereby other members of the fraternity are nominated to Associateship of the CMSA.The processes also include defining the criteria and processes for admission to CSEM of existing practitioners, establishing the processes for new CSEM members to register as specialists within the HPCSA and the BHF, establishment and implementation of registrar recruitment, employment and training programmes at and through the various Universities with medical programmes , establishing a Syllabus / Curriculum for specialist training and establishing examination procedures consistent with CMSA and international standards