With the Commonwealth Games now in the bag, South Africa is gearing up for an Olympics bid. Yesterday, shortly after 6.30am, Durban was named the first African host city of the Commonwealth Games.With the announcement just hours old, SA Sports Confederation and Olympics Committee board member Jace Naidoo confirmed that an Olympics bid was increasingly likely."Those discussions are starting to take place at Sascoc level ... not for 2024 [but for] the one after that ... to start considering that as an option," said Naidoo, who is also president of Swimming SA.This means that this country could bid to host the 2028 Olympics.Naidoo said that, although South Africa might not promote Durban as the host city for the Olympics, the infrastructure put in place for the 2022 Commonwealth Games would make the city the "easier" choice.The municipal manager of eThekwini, Sibusiso Sithole, said yesterday that although there were no formal talks at city level about an Olympics bid, "in a way [the infrastructure] does prepare us to start to think about events of that magnitude".Attempts to get comment from Minister of Sport Fikile Mbalula - who, when the Durban Commonwealth Games bid was submitted in London in March, said the Olympics "would be the next big thing in South Africa'' - were unsuccessful yesterday afternoon.But the director-general of the Department of Sport and Recreation, Alec Moemi, told reporters in New Zealand yesterday that the government was prepared to host the world's biggest multi-sports showpiece."The South African government has expressed an ambition to host an Olympics and we, in fact, are ready to host it now if the opportunity arises," he told Reuters."But we are fairly focused now that we should pay attention to the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and we will not intend to bid in the next seven years for anything."So an Olympic bid is not on our cards now. When it is, we will speak on it."In September 2010 Durban was the only South African city to put itself forward as an Olympics host. City officials presented a bid document to the cabinet in May 2011 but it was not supported, due largely to the economic downturn.Former municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe, who was city boss at the time of the proposed 2020 or 2024 bid, said yesterday that Durban was definitely ready to host the Olympics."In our own informal discussions with the International Olympics Committee, and African colleagues, there was a belief that, by the time we got to the 2028 or 2032 Olympics, there would be other serious bidders from Africa," said Sutcliffe."Clearly, in the future Africa will host an Olympics but it won't just be South African in the running."He said the Commonwealth Games were not necessarily a stepping stone to hosting an Olympics."You're in a very different league; the Olympics is a whole different kettle of fish," he said.If Durban were to host the Olympics it would need to cater for 26 sports, significantly more in number and variety than the 17 required for the Commonwealth Games.An Olympic village for the athletes would have to be constructed, as well as improvements to sporting facilities.Costs would be high. The 2012 Olympics in London cost$13-billion, and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing more than $44-billion.Sithole said the finances for these games were being closely monitored, with R2-billion coming from government coffers.He said: "We need to be alive to the reality that there will be no gains without sweat."Such games require careful planning and tight budget controls to make sure that we avoid optimism bias and cost overruns."Sithole said that 80% of the infrastructure required for the Commonwealth Games was already in place, making these games one of the cheapest in recent memory. In total, the Commonwealth Games will cost R6.4-billion.Faizel Dawjee, spokesman for the Durban bid committee, said that this sum would include funds for the development of athletes over the seven years leading up to the event, as well as upgrading the venues and the construction of temporary facilities.Durban will have its "Madiba Moment" in seven years' time - the opening ceremony will take place at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on July 18 2022, on what would have been the statesman's 104th birthday...