Thursday’s announcement came as a surprise with South Africa widely tipped to enter the running for the 2020 Games following its successful staging of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Indeed, Sam stated last month that Durban was being lined up as South Africa’s candidate city due to the “economies of scale” presented by the city.
The South African government’s decision to instead focus its efforts on improving “basic services” to its citizens has been accepted by Sam, who stated that SASCOC will now look to attract other sporting events in the hope of targeting a future edition of the Olympic Games.
“Perhaps the situation will be right to bid for the 2024 and 2028 Games,” he told www.sascoc.co.za. “In the meantime we can perhaps look at hosting other important multi-code events, for example the Commonwealth Games and World Games, which are also very important events in their own right in order to get further experience of hosting major sporting occasions. We at SASCOC have always said that government backing was absolutely crucial. We could only move forward on this bid if the government had a big appetite for the bid. So life will go on at Olympic House. I must make it clear that we understand perfectly where government is coming from. If the call is for bigger priorities such as better service delivery and the like then we must support them. We are comfortable with their decision.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) kicked off the 2020 bidding process on Monday, with the deadline for National Olympic Committees to submit an applicant city standing at September 1. The Italian capital of Rome is the only city to be confirmed as an applicant so far, but Tokyo is expected to table a bid, with Spain, France, Dubai, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Turkey also having expressed an interest.
A statement released by the South African government read: “Cabinet considered the request by the South African Sports Federation for the country to bid for the hosting of the 2020 Olympic Games. Cabinet has decided that it is better for the country to consolidate the gains of the 2010 FIFA World Cup for now and rather focus the country’s attention to the delivery of basic services to all South Africans.”
