Johannesburg - A delegation from the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) will be in South Africa this weekend for a line-in-the-sand crisis meeting with local authorities that could decide whether the multi-sport event will be hosted in Durban in 2022.
This follows the warning by CGF president Louise Martin at the organisation’s general assembly in Edmonton earlier this month that if South Africa did not meet their contractual deadlines by November 30 they would lose the right to host the Games.
The CGF has grown increasingly anxious about South Africa’s commitment to the Games after several deadlines for financial guarantees and organisational requirements have been missed. South Africa have missed deadlines to sign the host city contract, make payments, underwrite the event and set up an organising committee.
The CGF will meet the department of Sport and Recreation (SRSA) officials, including sports minister Fikile Mbalula, as well as representatives from the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc). It has been learnt that Sascoc were not originally invited to the meeting by SRSA, but were extended a late invitation on Wednesday. A source described relations between Sascoc and SRSA over the Games as “distant”.
“SRSA believe they are the custodian of the Commonwealth Games and are keeping Sascoc at arm’s length,” said the source, who believed the department was intent on taking control of the Games. It is understood the breakdown in relationships between the two biggest sporting authorities in South Africa centres around a dispute over the budget for the Games.
The budget for the 2022 event was announced as R6.4-billion last year, the same amount that was presented in the official bid book to the CGF. Alec Moemi, the director general of the department of sport, apparently presented a budget of just R4.8-billion for the Games to the Treasury. “He told Sascoc he had pitched that amount because he did not believe would have accepted the original budget,” said the source.
There is much confusion over who is paying what. In June, the City of Durban said it could not contribute R580-million as their portion. At the same time, Mbalula said the financial guarantees had been signed by finance minister Pravin Gordhan. Last week, the minister’s spokesperson said the government was still in negotiations with the CGF as they did not want to lose money as they had during the 2010 World Cup.
“The delays are simply because there are still negotiations taking place,” said Esethu Hasane, spokesman for the Department of SRSA. “We want value for money for hosting the Games. When the South African Government woke up (during the 2010 World Cup) we were footing most of the bills. When there were returns, the Government did not get its fair share.
“The South African Government want to negotiate all issues pertaining to hosting (the Commonwealth Games) including payments of facilities and hosting of the actual event and how the returns are shared.”
Some of the funds had already been budgeted by the City of Durban, which include the athletes’ village and the upgrading of transport. A portion of the funds required would be offset by the sale of the apartments in the athletes’ village after the Games, as well income from television and merchandise rights. The City of Durban, Sascoc and the SRSA met last week to see where they could cut back on the budget, but while they found some savings, could not chop it down to the amount Moemi had presented.
This week, Sascoc president Gideon Sam told EWN, that South Africa’s hosting of the Games was on a tightrope, and placed the ball squarely in Moemi’s court. “The announcement can go either way to say we’re ready to move forward, or we’ve looked at our conditions and resources in the country and we feel that we should not go ahead. We have raised our issues and asked if we could ensure that by November 30, we will have these issues in place The DG himself now is dealing with outstanding issues and it shouldn’t take long until they make the proper announcement.”
South Africa were awarded the Games in September 2015 as the only bidding city.
Independent Media