The first two dogs were imported into South Africa in 1979 out of Carver stock from Texas USA. The first dogs were all registered with the American Dog Breeders Association (ADBA) in the USA. By mid 1980’s there were almost 200 American Pit Bull Terriers in South Africa. By 1984 Chris Bekker formed the Pit Bull Club of South Africa and was appoint the first president of the club. Later the Organization split into two, the Pit Bull Federation of South African and the Pit Bull Union of South Africa. The PBFSA remained affiliated to the ADBA and by doing so the PBFSA continued to use the ADBA breed standard, ADBA show rules and also used the ADBA as the Registration Body for APBTs.
The PBFSA began to showcase the APBT in the show arena, with Conformation, Weight Pull, High Jump, Long Hanging, as well as Obedience. There were 30 ADBA registered APBTs at the first PBFSA show.
In 1996, Danie Erasmus took over as Chairman of the PBFSA. In September 1996 he requested the ADBA to send two judges from the ADBA Head Office to educate the pit bull enthusiasts in South Africa as well as train show judges. During that visit the ADBA conducted seminars on conformation and breeding for PBFSA members.
The PBFSA initially had clubs in Elspark, Krugersdorp and Secunda who competed against each other. In 2001 Jeanette Erasmus went to the USA where she did an in-depth study of the breed, there she learned from some of the APBT greatest “dog men”. Upon her return, herself and Danie Erasmus started to actively promote the APBT in South Africa. Together they visited schools and public events to highlight the breed as a family dog, an obedience team was started in order to do demonstrations at these events. The first shows started with 30 dogs, this quickly went from 30 to 50 and at some stage over 150 dogs at shows. Today Jeanette Erasmus and the PBFSA are still working to actively promote the breed in South Africa.