JOHANNESBURG, Nov 13, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - South Africa plans to bid for the 2036 
or 2040 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the government said Thursday, aiming to 
bring one of the world's biggest sporting events to Africa for the first 
time.

The country was the first on the continent to host the football World Cup in 
2010.

"South Africa initiates its intention to bid for the 2036 and 2040 Olympic 
Games," minister in the presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said in a press 
briefing.

She said Pretoria had entered into "continuous dialogue with the 
International Olympic Committee", headed since June by Zimbabwean Kirsty 
Coventry.

It is as a "preliminary and exploratory engagement that is critical to 
advance South Africa's intention to bid for the hosting rights of the Olympic 
and Paralympic Games," Ntshavheni said, without specifying the potential host 
city.

Cape Town had bid to host the 2004 Games, which ultimately went to Athens in 
a 1997 vote.

Ntshavheni said South Africa wouldn't require significant investment to 
improve its already available infrastructure.

"Even if we are offered the games tomorrow, cabinet is confident that we 
should be able to host them with our facilities," she said.

In a visit to South Africa in October 2024, former IOC president Thomas Bach 
had said the country had "the stability, the infrastructure and vision to 
stage an Olympics".

Senegal's Dakar will next year be the first city on the continent to host the 
Youth Olympics, from October 31 to November 14, 2026.

The next Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles in 2028, and the 2032 
Games have been awarded to Brisbane, Australia.

In October, Munich voters approved a plan for a bid to host the Summer 
Olympics in 2036, 2040 or 2044. The German city last hosted the Games in 
1972.

South Africa has been putting its weight behind international sporting 
events, and has bid to host a Formula One Grand Prix at its historic Kyalami 
track near Johannesburg from 2027.

Africa's most industrialised economy is also the main organiser of the 2027 
men's Cricket World Cup.