The Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, has confirmed that he has put wheels in motion to bring Formula 1 (F1) back to South Africa.
It’s been over 30 years since an F1 race was held on local soil, and on the African continent as a whole, with the last one taking place at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in Gauteng in 1993.
Responding to F1 fans on X (previously Twitter), McKenzie said that he will fight tooth and nail to bring F1 back to the nation and that he already has a meeting set up with the powers that be later this year to discuss the potential of the sport’s return.
“I have set up meetings with relevant people already, my term will be a failure if I don’t bring one of the biggest sporting tourist events to South Africa which is F1,” said the minister.
“Our first meeting is end of August in Monaco.”
Political pressures
The return of F1 to the southern tip of Africa has been rumoured for quite some time but was deemed “untenable in the near future” due to South Africa’s close-knit relationship with Russia.
The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) which is the governing body of F1 instated a blanket ban on Russian and Belarusian participation following the former’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, except for those willing to sign a neutrality agreement.
This saw the Russian Grand Prix promptly cut from the calendar, Russian sponsors dropped, and Russian drivers losing their seats.
Another consequence of the ban on these countries; South Africa’s claim of neutrality regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict was called into question after it failed to denounce the invasion.
South Africa has facilitated several interactions with Russia after it was sanctioned by Western nations in a bid to deepen ties with the Eastern European country.
National government allowed a sanctioned Russian cargo ship to dock at Simon’s Town Naval Base in December 2022, engaged in a joint Russian/Chinese naval exercise off the KwaZulu-Natal coast in February 2023, and allowed a sanctioned military aircraft to land at Waterkloof Air Force Base in April 2023.
Additionally, it attempted to provide diplomatic immunity to members of the BRICS nations in an effort to sidestep its responsibility to the International Criminal Court to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin in August when he was expected to attend a BRICS summit on local soil.
These actions brought the authenticity of South Africa’s neutrality into question and therefore its viability as a location for an F1 race.
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