South Africa looks set to lose the hosting rights to the 2022 Commonwealth Games, but it is hardly a surprise as the country reneged on its promises ... one deadline after another.
Sports minister Fikile Mbalula this week gave the strongest signal that the country may not be able to host the showpiece.
“I don’t want to raise your expectations and say everything looks good, it doesn’t. We are unable to agree on the fundamentals,” Mbalula said at a press conference in Cape Town.
“It does not look like we will find each other. We have given it our best shot, but we cannot live beyond our means.”
Before anybody accuses me of being a naysayer, I have always believed South Africa had the capability to host the multi-sport event.
The country has an impeccable track record in hosting major international events, including the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the 2003 Cricket World Cup, and the biggest one of them all, the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
The 2022 Durban Commonwealth Games could be the ideal opportunity to boost the so-called Cinderella sports, provided the funds are allocated to federations and utilised in the right way.
Even if South Africa manages to retain the hosting rights, it is too late to implement any sort of plan to develop medal contenders for 2022 and the 2024 Olympic Games.
With only five years to go before the planned Durban spectacle, no plan is in place to ensure South Africa improves on its fifth-place finishes on the Commonwealth Games medals table in 1998, 2006 and 2010.
It would be an embarrassment of epic proportions should the Commonwealth Games Federation strip South Africa of the hosting rights.
Everybody involved in the bidding process, and those who signed agreements with the CGF, should do the honourable thing, apologise for bringing the country into disrepute and step down from whichever positions they may hold.
Durban was left as the sole bidder for the 2022 Games after Edmonton withdrew its bid in 2015 due to financial reasons.
Perhaps the South African bidding committee were too optimistic about the country’s return on investment, but it seems like not enough thinking went into securing the hosting rights.
Playing host to multi-sport events is clearly a poisoned chalice, considering the lack of bidders for events such as the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games.
Cities bidding cities for the 2024 Olympic Games have been reduced from five - Rome, Budapest, and Hamburg withdrew, and only Los Angeles and Paris remain in the running.
The legacy of the Rio Olympics, just six months since the global showpiece was hosted in the Brazilian city, is one of deterioration.
It never felt like Brazilians had bought into the whole song and dance of the Olympics, while it was clearly a burden on a battered and bruised economy.
Mbalula makes a good point when he says “we cannot live beyond our means” but that is perhaps something that should have been given serious consideration when Durban were given the hosting rights two years ago.
While the Commonwealth Games pales in comparison to the Oympics, developing countries should think twice before taking on events of this magnitude.