South Africa Pushes for Historic Olympic Bid; Minister Eyes Economic Gains for African Con

South Africa’s sport minister Gayton McKenzie wants the 2036 Summer Olympics held on African soil, a continent that has never once hosted the Games in their 128-year modern history.

The 52-year-old Patriotic Alliance member made the case to City AM that ordinary South Africans, and Africans broadly, have been systematically denied the civic and economic benefits that come when the world’s biggest sporting events arrive. His argument is straightforward: global sport has clustered its most prestigious competitions in Europe and the Americas, leaving an entire continent of more than a billion people on the outside.

That exclusion has real consequences for citizens. Major tournaments bring infrastructure investment, tourism revenue, and the kind of national pride that binds communities together. McKenzie did not shy away from naming the pattern directly. “There’s always been something against South Africa: no F1, no Olympics, no major soccer tournament until 2010.” The FIFA World Cup, when it finally arrived fourteen years ago, proved the country could deliver world-class organization. Yet McKenzie’s point is that it came far later than it should have.

The Olympic bid carries the most symbolic weight for the public. McKenzie noted that the International Olympic Committee, a century-old institution, is “for the first time strongly considering coming to South Africa.” A successful 2036 bid would mean African citizens hosting the planet’s largest peacetime gathering, with all the infrastructure, jobs, and global visibility that entails.

Meanwhile, Formula 1 remains a live frustration. McKenzie pointed to the geographic absurdity of a sport that schedules races at Monaco, Imola, and Monza within relatively short distances of one another, yet places not a single round anywhere on the African continent. A return to the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit, outside Johannesburg, would give South African fans access to a sport that currently treats their continent as invisible. As McKenzie put it plainly, “A sport cannot be completely global if it ignores Africa.”

On golf, the minister cited this year’s LIV Golf League event as concrete proof of public appetite and logistical capacity, drawing what he described as “the biggest golf tournament on the African continent with 104,000 people.” He did not deny reports that a Diamond League athletics event could follow, though he stopped short of confirming details.

Beyond the economics and the logistics, McKenzie returned repeatedly to sport’s role in the daily lives of citizens. His most striking example was the Springboks rugby team. When democracy arrived in South Africa, the Springbok emblem was seen by many as a symbol of apartheid-era division. “One of the first things we said we’re going to remove was the Springboks emblem,” McKenzie recalled. Nelson Mandela, the country’s first democratically elected president, intervened to keep it. “And you fast forward 30 years to a team that unifies our country more than any other team.” That arc, from emblem of division to source of national cohesion, is the clearest illustration McKenzie offers of what sport can do for a society.

The Springboks are currently at the center of a new tour tournament with New Zealand called The Greatest Rivalry, structured to mirror the prestige of the British and Irish Lions tour. Three Tests take place in South Africa, with a fourth match scheduled in Baltimore. For South African fans, the series represents the kind of recurring, high-profile fixture that keeps the country on the global sporting map between the bigger bids.

Egypt’s Olympic Park in its new capital and Rwanda’s growing appetite for international sporting governance both point to a continent increasingly ready to host at the highest level, though global media and sporting bodies have been slow to take notice.

The question McKenzie leaves open is whether the International Olympic Committee and Formula 1’s commercial rights holders will act on their stated interest before another generation of African sports fans watches the world’s biggest events unfold somewhere else.