Editorial: Common sense lost in bungled Games bid

19 March 2017 - 02:00 By Sunday Times
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An aerial view of the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.
An aerial view of the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.
Image: Gallo Images

This week, Durban lost the rights to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Some of the world's best athletes will not be performing in South Africa, the chance to pump money into underfunded sporting codes like hockey and boxing is gone and Durban will not get some of its facilities upgraded.

The world's media and sports-loving public won't be in the country to spend their money.

To make matters worse, the months leading up to the realisation that South Africa would not host the Games have been bad.

The government missed crucial deadlines and submitted key documents at the last minute, and South Africa was subjected to a constant stream of threats by the Commonwealth Games Federation that, if promises were not kept, the country would lose its hosting rights.

What makes the fiasco all the more embarrassing is that South Africa was the sole bidder for the 2022 Games.

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But now that South Africa has officially thrown in the towel, it does not have to fork out R6-billion, or R8-billion, depending on who you believe, to host the sporting showpiece.

It is disappointing that R118-million was wasted on the bid, but comparatively speaking that is a drop in the ocean when contrasted with how much more would have been spent in preparation for hosting the main event.

Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula said this week that the government had refused to sign a blank cheque and resisted being bullied into paying more than it could afford. "We wanted the Games, but not at any cost," he conceded.

This is a welcome departure and, for once, Mbalula's explanation will suffice.

But the question remains if there was any wisdom in bidding at all.

Mbalula and the Department of Sport will insist that bidding was necessary and they will probably justify this by saying the economic spin-offs would have been greater than the initial costs of the bid and hosting the event.

However, the bid was ill-advised and the millions spent on it should have been pumped into more pressing and immediate needs. Losing that R118-million will continue to sting long after the Games storm has blown over.

Yes, Durban has lost out, but the messy handling of the debacle left much to be desired.

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