BCM drops ball in major bid

Opportunity to host international women’s sport goes up in smoke

A once-in-a-lifetime chance for the Eastern Cape to host a major international sports tournament has gone up in smoke.

Buffalo City Metro lost an opportunity to bid for hosting the Netball World Cup (NWC) after it failed to honour an agreement to support Netball South Africa’s proposal to host the 2023 NWC.

The tournament would have had major economic spinoffs for the city and the region as the 16 best international netball nations from Africa, Asia, America, Europe and Oceania would have descended on the city if the bid was successful.

In 2017 BCM approved leasing of land in Stirling for a recreational netball facility.

The NWC has been given to the city of Cape Town.

The Daily Dispatch has seen a letter dated February 2018 from the Eastern Cape Netball Association (Ecna) president, Mpumie Javu, to BCM city manager Andile Sihlahla stating that the planned facility to be built for the tournament was estimated at R280-million.

“Ecna sees high value in venturing into a multipurpose netball sport facility for Buffalo City, Eastern Cape and the country at large, as there is currently no existing facility that focuses on netball as a sport,” Javu wrote.

In another letter written to Sihlahla early this year, Netball South Africa (NSA) president Cecilia Molokwane and CEO Blanche de la Guerre provide a breakdown of what BCM had to provide in the bid.

BCM spokesman Samkelo Ngwenya said the land lease agreement was solely for a netball sport facility.

“In terms of the land lease application and approval, no reference was made to the NWC tournament of 2023 but rather a netball sports facility that will serve BCM, the Eastern Cape and the country.

“So it is important to differentiate that the two might be inter-related in as far as they affect the same sports code, but do not dictate one another,” he said.

The Daily Dispatch has learnt that preparations for BCM to bid for the tournament were at an advanced stage but came to an abrupt halt after the municipality did not accelerate the process to reach the June 30 deadline.

Just a day before the deadline, NSA indicated to BCM that because of the delays, NSA was approached by Cape Town and had accepted their bid.