SA ready to host Olympics - Rogge

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge says South Africa is ready to host an Olympic Games.

|||

South Africa is ready to host an Olympic Games after last year's successful soccer World Cup, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge said on Saturday.

It was widely expected that South Africa would enter the race to hold the 2020 summer Games.

However, in May the South African government quashed the idea by announcing that they would not support an Olympic bid, preferring instead to concentrate on the delivery of “basic services to all South Africans”.

Rogge, speaking in Durban after the conclusion of the IOC session in the South African city, said that while he respected the government's decision he felt there was a good chance the country would enter the Olympic race sooner rather than later.

“I respect the decision of the government to focus on other tasks, but I felt a genuine desire, speaking to politicians and the president (Jacob Zuma), that they want to bid in the future,” Rogge told a news conference.

“South Africa proved during the World Cup that they are ready for a major event. As a nation they are ready to host the Olympic Games.”

Rogge went on to say that South Africa, the first African nation to host a World Cup and the most likely to hold a first ever African Olympics, may not bid for the 2020 games but may turn their attention to the 2024 edition.

Tubby Reddy, chief executive of South Africa's Olympic committee,(SASCOC), reckoned sports minister Fikile Mbalula would try to get the decision not to bid for the 2020 games reversed.

“Minister Mbalula is still lobbying his colleagues and maybe it will change,” Reddy told a small group of reporters.

“It seems that this is the opportune time to at least bid, there are not guarantees that we would win, but everything points in that direction. The IOC president has gone on record as saying that there is no reason why we cannot bid (and) President Zuma said the same thing after the World Cup.”

Earlier in the week Mbalula said “all doors are open” as regards a possible 2020 bid with Italy's Rome so far the only definite bidder.

But Reddy did sound a note of caution.

“Personally I think the government will come back and say 'no' simply because they said no in the first place because of different priorities and that has not changed. Perhaps 2024 is more realistic,” he said. – Reuters

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/sa-ready-to-host-olympics-rogge-1.1096179

Gender Equality Higher education Theatre Family finances Soap opera