PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Build houses instead of hosting car racing, SA urged
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) - A leading South African businessman on Friday warned against the country staging the Formula One Grand Prix motor racing, saying the country should concentrate on giving people houses, light and water “unless we want another London on our hands”.
Commenting on plans to stage the grand prix in Cape Town, marketing and media expert Stewart Ramsay, who is the Executive Director of Ramcom Publishing, said: "Unfortunately sometimes passion causes one to lose sight of reality and it is often the emotion that clouds the facts. To stage a Formula One event will require huge money, the volume of money that only the government can provide.''
He said the issue should be compared to the recent suggestion that South Africa should bid for the Olympics.
“The government made the decision that we would not bid for the Olympics because there were much more important issues on which tax payers money should be spent. That situation has not changed and will equally apply to the staging of a Formula One event.
''There are hundreds and thousands of people in South Africa without formal housing - without lights and water - without jobs and without the facility to receive proper education,” he said.
Ramsay said South Africa was already confronted with the problem of building a string of highly expensive stadia to host the FIFA World Cup soccer, only for the stadia to now become a herd of white elephants.
"That the staging of events like the World Cup soccer and Formula One racing have benefits for the country is not the debate. The debate is simply that if the government has finance available, should they stage sporting events or should they build houses - create jobs and raise the standard of service delivery. You only have to see what happened in London to understand what happens when those in governance do not take cognisance of a situation or do not analyze a situation correctly,” he said.
Ramsay said South Africa staged an excellent World Cup soccer tournament, “but ask anyone now would they rather have 3 billion Rands worth of houses or an empty 3 billion rand stadium and the answer will be simple - lets have the houses.”
F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone is reported to be close to signing the agreement with the race organisers to stage the event in South Africa.
-0- PANA CU/SEG 12Aug2011
Commenting on plans to stage the grand prix in Cape Town, marketing and media expert Stewart Ramsay, who is the Executive Director of Ramcom Publishing, said: "Unfortunately sometimes passion causes one to lose sight of reality and it is often the emotion that clouds the facts. To stage a Formula One event will require huge money, the volume of money that only the government can provide.''
He said the issue should be compared to the recent suggestion that South Africa should bid for the Olympics.
“The government made the decision that we would not bid for the Olympics because there were much more important issues on which tax payers money should be spent. That situation has not changed and will equally apply to the staging of a Formula One event.
''There are hundreds and thousands of people in South Africa without formal housing - without lights and water - without jobs and without the facility to receive proper education,” he said.
Ramsay said South Africa was already confronted with the problem of building a string of highly expensive stadia to host the FIFA World Cup soccer, only for the stadia to now become a herd of white elephants.
"That the staging of events like the World Cup soccer and Formula One racing have benefits for the country is not the debate. The debate is simply that if the government has finance available, should they stage sporting events or should they build houses - create jobs and raise the standard of service delivery. You only have to see what happened in London to understand what happens when those in governance do not take cognisance of a situation or do not analyze a situation correctly,” he said.
Ramsay said South Africa staged an excellent World Cup soccer tournament, “but ask anyone now would they rather have 3 billion Rands worth of houses or an empty 3 billion rand stadium and the answer will be simple - lets have the houses.”
F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone is reported to be close to signing the agreement with the race organisers to stage the event in South Africa.
-0- PANA CU/SEG 12Aug2011
