Cape Town Grand Prix South Africa has accused Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie of setting up a “flawed process” after a “R10 million” deposit was required just to bid to host a South African Grand Prix.

Last year, South Africa’s Minister of the Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture McKenzie formally introduced the Formula 1 Bid Steering Committee as the African country began the process of chasing a spot on the Formula 1 grid.

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Formula 1 last visited South African shores in 1993, a race won by Alain Prost.

But amidst financial issues and political struggles, the event was then dropped from the calendar, leaving Africa without a spot on what’s billed as a ‘World Championship’ calendar.

McKenzie is determined to see Formula 1 return, the Minister of the Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture saying he tenure would “be a failure” if he didn’t bring F1 to South Africa.

The bidding process has been drawn out, with the F1 Bid Steering Committee now expected to confirm its preferred candidate in the coming days.

Kyalami is leading the running after the FIA gave the Grade 2 circuit approval to upgrade the venue to Grade 1 standards.

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CTGPSA CEO Igshaan Almay is not impressed, calling out the bidding process for demanding a R10 million deposit.

“Cape Town Grand Prix sees this whole process as a flawed process, because firstly, nowhere in South Africa in the new democracy, has there been a request that you have to pay R10 million rand to bid to bring an event to the country,” Amlay told the Cape Argus newspaper.

“A payment of a deposit of R10 million to support an open bid submission should not be the determining factor as to whether a bid is considered or not, particularly when it does not make any changes to the economics of a bid.

“Then, when the bid document was put out, we were given fewer than 10 days to submit our entire proposal, including a R10 million deposit – a bid to host a major global sporting event.

“Only after we pushed for an extension to encourage a fair process did an extension emerge.”

CTGPSA questioned how the Bid Steering Committee would use the R10 million deposit, what would trigger a refund and the timeframe for that refund.

Almay also questioned whether bias was involved after McKenzie allegedly said back in December that the race would go to Kyalami.

“On 7 December 2024,” he said, “Gayton McKenzie stated ‘the race is going to happen at Kyalami’ and this was before announcing the BSC, looking at other bids or doing economic assessments.

“The fact that minister McKenzie appointed the BSC cannot just be overlooked as trivial, especially given how things played out after this.”

McKenzie’s department responded to Almay’s allegations, saying they are “utterly and totally baseless.

The department’s spokesperson, Stacey-Lee Khojane, said: The bid process was open to anyone who wished to submit a bid.

“All of the bids were judged fairly and objectively by the BSC. The minister was not a part of that process.

“Their [CTGPSA’s] allegations are utterly and totally baseless.”

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