IOC Holds the Levers as Durban Enters Olympic Bid

Durban has been named South Africa’s preferred city to bid for the 2036 or 2040 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, but the International Olympic Committee will decide which city gets the Games. South African Olympic committee acting president Lwandile Simelane announced the choice Thursday. The bid would likely be a “multi-city bid,” with some events held elsewhere.

Who Gets to Choose

Durban, South Africa’s third-biggest city, has around 4 million residents and sits on the subtropical Indian Ocean coast. Johannesburg, the country’s economic hub, and Cape Town also came under consideration before officials settled on Durban as the main candidate city. The announcement names a preferred location; it doesn’t determine whether South Africa will host the Games.

South Africa is one of seven countries bidding for the 2036 Games. India, Qatar, South Korea, Germany, Hungary and Turkey are also in the running. The IOC set Oct. 31 as the deadline for national Olympic committees to formally declare interest in bidding. Candidates can make virtual presentations to the IOC next month to start the official process. The IOC board is expected to approve a shortlist in March, and the IOC will choose the 2036 host city in mid-2029.

That’s the chain of command: South African officials can put forward a city, but the IOC controls the shortlist and final selection. The source reports no community-led process or public decision-making over whether the bid should proceed.

The Cost Still Has No Number

Officials said Thursday they couldn’t yet estimate the cost of staging the Olympics. That unanswered question hangs over a proposal built around the 56,000-seat Moses Mabhida Stadium, which South Africa constructed for the 2010 soccer World Cup. The bid’s main venue already exists, but the source gives no overall price tag or details about who would bear the costs.

South Africa touted Durban as a possible Olympic host after staging the 2010 World Cup, the first in Africa, but no official bid followed, largely because of cost concerns. Durban also lost the chance to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games because it couldn’t provide the required financial or other guarantees. Those precedents put the financial test in plain view: the city’s earlier ambition ran into costs and guarantees, and officials still can’t estimate the bill for this proposal.

The account names no grassroots organizing, mutual aid effort or direct action around the bid. It also reports no election or legislative proposal as a way to decide the issue. What it describes is an institutional contest, with Olympic committees declaring interest and the IOC deciding who advances. Residents appear in the story as Durban’s population, not as participants in the reported decision.

A First for the Continent, If Selected

If successful, South Africa would become the first African host of the Summer Games since the modern Olympics began in 1896. South Africa previously failed in a bid to stage the 2004 Games in Cape Town. This weekend, the Youth Olympics open in Dakar, Senegal, marking the first Olympic sports event held in Africa.

The proposed bid now faces the IOC’s formal process, while the cost remains unknown. Durban has the preferred-city label and a stadium at its center. The committee that will choose the host in mid-2029 holds the authority to award the Games.