Success at the recent Cricket World Cup in South Africa has prompted South Africa to consider a bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
South Africa’s Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour told Members of Parliament Tuesday that South Africa was casting its net for the Commonwealth and Olympic Games.
“It is estimated that about 20,000 foreign spectators visited our shores to watch the Cricket World Cup. That translates into close to 3,500 jobs”.
The Minister said that initial estimates indicated the economic benefits of the event “amount to some R1 billion. It proves that sport has a role to play in pushing back the frontiers of poverty”.
The Minister added that the sports department had hosted a successful conference on developing a strategy for bidding for and hosting major international sports events.
“I am happy to confirm that we reached consensus about approaching bids in an orderly fashion to ensure that we develop the capacity incrementally, to host larger and more complex events to enable us, eventually, to present the biggest spectacle of world sports, the Olympic Games, some time in the future.
“During the conference we committed ourselves to prioritize bids to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and to give consideration to the 2020 Olympic Games. Of course, events take place in cities and towns and local and provincial authorities have a critical role to play in any international event that we plan to host”.
