Durban approves R1.1 bn price tag for Commonwealth Games
The municipality has reported the Commonwealth Games is to cost the city and provincial government over a billion rand.
ETHEKWINI Municipality’s Executive Committee (EXCO) has approved a budget proposal of R1,086 billion to host the Commonwealth Games, which will be shared equally with the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
It is expected that the total contribution by the City will be R543 million. This figure is a small portion of the R3,4 billion proposed operating and capital cost of the event which will be carried by all stakeholders involved with the Games.
City Manager, Sibusiso Sithole, said the funds would contribute towards the upgrade, maintenance and equipping of sports venues and will contribute towards the overlay costs and equipment in sports venues in preparation for the Commonwealth Games.
“A technical subcommittee will prepare a detailed multi-year budget leading up to 2022 with clear milestones and financial requirements for each financial year. The financial responsibilities will be clearly defined within this process,” he said.
Costs will be budgeted over several financial years leading up to the Games in 2022.
Members of the Executive Committee were discussing the report a month after the Commonwealth Games Federation’s Evaluation Commission’s formal visit Durban. The host city for the Games is expected to be announced on 2 September.
The total cost of the bidding process is estimated at R98m, of which R35m will be shared between the city and the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government for costs associated with preparing the bid document, which will include the plans for all the stadiums to be used. Each party will contribute R17.5m.
Sithole said Durban has the infrastructure required to host the Games, and the dominant funding investments required in terms of infrastructure will be for the rehabilitation and upgrades of existing facilities.
It was recommend that a task team be formed to engage with national government on the development of Cornubia as an athletes village, the funding for which would be sought from national government.
The Moses Mabhida sports precinct houses many of the required facilities within a walking distance including the Moses Mabhida Stadium, People’s Park, Kings Park Swimming Pool, GrowthPoint (Kings Park) Rugby Stadium, the beachfront promenade, Umngeni River and the Kingsmead Cricket Stadium.
The sporting codes proposed for the 2022 Games are netball, table tennis, shooting, cycling, badminton, judo, weightlifting, wrestling, boxing, lawn bowls, swimming, rugby 7s, athletics, hockey, beach volleyball and triathlon.
Cornubia has been identified for the Commonwealth Games Village with Kingsmead Cricket Oval used as a media broadcasting centre and SABC Land/Kingsmead Office Park will be used as an international broadcasting centre.
