Despite the best efforts of the ANC to the contrary, Cape Town remains a premier international sporting destination, with three major events set to take place in the Mother City for the first time in the next six months. Saturday will mark six months until the start of the Netball World Cup in July, while Wednesday will mark one month until the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix. Cape Town will also soon play host to several games of the 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
The Cape Town International Convention Centre is currently playing host to the Netball Quad Series – a precursor event the main Netball World Cup, which will take place at the same venue from the 28th of July. The preparations for this event have already paid dividends, with the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (DCAS) using the event as an opportunity to promote Netball and women’s sport in general in the Western Cape. This push has seen the construction of several new netball courts in schools across the province.
DCAS has also provided support for the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix, an event on the ABB Formula E calendar which will see some of the world’s most advanced electric racing cars take to the streets around Cape Town Stadium. The race will be the culmination of a 10- day festival to be held in the City which will showcase the newest and most advanced technologies in electric mobility. In hosting this event, the CoCT places itself firmly in the company of the most advanced and progressive cities in the world.
Finally, Cape Town’s Newlands Cricket Stadium will play host to selected matches of the 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup – another event which DCAS has used to promote women’s sport. These exciting matches will begin in early February, with South Africa taking on Sri Lanka at Newlands on the 10th.
These events will bring jobs and foreign investment to the Western Cape, resulting in tangible benefits for our citizens. At a time in which South Africa is facing unprecedented economic hardship, they represent economic lifelines to several industries which are struggling to keep their employees on payroll as load shedding grows ever-more pervasive. In this way, these events will not only create employment, but will save the jobs of many who may otherwise have found themselves without work.
DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Cultural Affairs and Sport Gillion Bosman says: “We are incredibly excited for these events and the benefits they will bring to our citizens. They prove that the international sporting community shares our confidence in the Western Cape Government’s ability to deliver the infrastructure and services necessary to realise world-class productions, and to protect our province from the catastrophic economic failures of the ANC’s flatlining non-governance.”