Gayton McKenzie’s multimillion-rand trip to World Cup ‘poorly planned’, says DA MP

DA MP Leah Potgieter on Tuesday said the sport, arts and culture department’s multimillion-rand trip to the 2026 Fifa World Cup was poorly planned.

Minister Gayton McKenzie’s vague answers to her questions in parliament about the anticipated World Cup cost were vague and raised “alarm bells” about financial oversight, she added.

A big issue was the more than R5m difference between his expected expenditure and his budget.

Early in his written reply McKenzie said his department expected to spend about R14m, and later he put the budget at more than R19m.

“His vague answer essentially shows how poorly this trip was planned, and it does raise alarm bells regarding the financial oversight,” Potgieter told TimesLIVE on Tuesday.

“If he were fully transparent, a clear estimated expenditure and budget would have matched and given us a clear breakdown of all estimated costs.”

Potgieter had asked McKenzie about:

• the total expenditure of his department on trips, delegations, and activities linked to the World Cup;
• from which budget votes and programmes the money was coming from; and
• how much had been budgeted for “super fans”, artists, journalists, former players and his delegation.

McKenzie replied that he expected to spend:

• R4.7m on flights to North America;
• R2.45m on accommodation, local transport and subsistence; and
• R6.85m on activities around the tournament.

The department has adopted a cost-containment approach through reduced infrastructure requirements, reduced delegation sizes, staggered deployment and return schedules, use of strategic partnerships and limiting activities to essential programme elements only

—  Gayton McKenzie

These included:

• participation at the Aldea Global village, a festival in Mexico City where Bafana Bafana play their opening match against Mexico on Thursday;
• activities in Atlanta, where South Africa take on Czechia on June 18;
• fan park activities around Monterrey, where Bafana play South Korea on June 25; and
• limited legacy activities.

McKenzie added that the amounts were subject to “final procurement processes”, sponsorship and partnership contributions, exchange rate fluctuations and final operational confirmations.

“The department has adopted a cost-containment approach through reduced infrastructure requirements, reduced delegation sizes, staggered deployment and return schedules, use of strategic partnerships and limiting activities to essential programme elements only.”

McKenzie said the government was contributing nothing to the sponsor-funded lucky fans initiative nor to journalists and media who were fully sponsored by Betway. But he listed estimated budgets of:

• R3.5m for artists and cultural performers;
• R6.7m for former players and legend programmes; and
• R8.96m for ministerial and departmental delegations.

Editor’s Note: Our sports journalist Mahlatse Mphahlele is part of the media cohort whose trip to the World Cup is partly sponsored by the sports department.

TimesLIVE