As Commonwealth Games bosses prepare to receive a recommendation on whether or not Durban will host the 2022 event, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula has admitted that it "doesn't look good".
The showpiece was awarded to the coastal city in September 2015 but the host nation missed key deadlines and failed to submit documentation on time, despite spending R120-million on the bid.
A final cut-off date of November 30 last year for the final submission of all outstanding issues was set by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) - a deadline which was met by South Africa, but with only a day to spare.
But now Mbalula has admitted that the city faces an uphill battle to host the Games amid a fight over funding. It appears increasingly likely that Durban will lose the rights to host the multisport event and Mbalula's remarks appeared to add fuel to the fire. At a Cape Town press conference yesterday he said: "I don't want to raise your expectations and say everything looks good; it doesn't. We are unable to agree on the fundamentals."
He said that those fundamentals were, for the most part, cash related.
The federation will meet in London next weekend and Mbalula said there was a "possibility the Commonwealth Games will be out of the window".
He said a team was in London to meet members of the federation, but that "we can't find each other on the final figures".
The operational costs were the main sticking point, he said.
The SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) reportedly spent nearly R120-million on its bid. The total cost of hosting the Games is estimated to be R8.2-billion, with a projected GDP benefit of about R11-billion.
Sascoc chairman Tubby Reddy gave no details regarding the latest developments but said that Sascoc president Gideon Sam would be at the meeting.
A source at the Games federation said yesterday a CGF team "is in the final stages of evaluating submissions to determine whether Durban's proposals for hosting the Games are consistent with their original bid commitments.
"A final recommendation will be referred to the executive board [but] given the variety and significance of matters under consideration, a recommendation to the executive board is unlikely before the end of February [2018].
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