Fazny Zavahir: Team SA ‘too white’

  National Assembly sport and recreation committee chairman Butana Komphela has again questioned the lack of transformation in South African sport, while the team sent to represent the country at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi this month was considered “too white” and looked like it “came from Europe”.

Team SA walked away with 33 medals, including 12 gold, in New Delhi, but while the Minister of Sport and Recreation, Makhenkesi Stofile, was full of praise for the team after the Games, IOL reports that Komphela instead questioned the lack of transformation in the team.

Khompela is well known for his stance on transformation in SA sport. He once went as far as threatening to withhold Springbok players’ passports if the team did not reflect the demographics of the country.

On Tuesday, the Sports and Recreation Department was appearing before the committee to account for its performance for the 2009/10 financial year, but while Deputy Minister of Sport and Recreation Gert Oosthuizen made no mention of transformation during his overview, the topic became central to discussions.

Speaking to the committee, Khompela revealed that South Africa’s envoy to India, Harris Mbulelo Majeke, was especially critical of the demographics of the team competing in India.

“The high commissioner said to me ‘that team is too white, make that team come from South Africa’,” said Komphela.

He added: “The team looked like it came from Europe. We are not saying take kids from the streets, but why is there no concentrated effort to transform sport?

“To London (2012 Olympics), send an SA team. The Samoan team looked more South African; ours looked like it’s from the queen,” he said.

Komphela went on to criticise the department for what he called “a conspicuous silence on transformation by the department”, and he was not alone. According to IOL, a number of MPs laid into Oosthuizen on Tuesday over lack of transformation.

United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa, however, said Majeke’s comments were opportunistic and that it was, in fact, the ANC that had failed in transforming South African sport.

“I am not saying transformation means replacing a white person with a black person; it means that there is a need to develop infrastructure,” Holomisa said.

“They (the department) have done nothing. It does not seem as if any training or development of institutions has been implemented. You can ask them for their registers of those players playing at club level, and they will not have it. They have failed dismally.”

Fazny Zavahir: Facebook Investor Mail.ru Seeks $876 Million in IPO

Mail.ru, partly owned by billionaire Alisher Usmanov, seen here, and South Africa’s Naspers Ltd., is offering 31.62 million shares shares in the form of global depository receipts for $23.70 to $27.70 each, according to a regulatory filing today.

Mail.ru Group Ltd., a Russian Internet company with stakes in Facebook Inc. and Zynga Game Network Inc., is seeking as much as $876 million in an initial public offering in London.

Mail.ru, partly owned by billionaire Alisher Usmanov and South Africa’s Naspers Ltd., is offering 31.62 million shares shares in the form of global depository receipts for $23.70 to $27.70 each, according to a regulatory filing today. The company will sell 3 million new shares while existing shareholders including the company’s founders will sell the rest, according to a term sheet for the sale obtained by Bloomberg News.

“It’s the only way to get exposure to Facebook so it might attract a broad range of investors,” Michael Kart, a managing partner at Moscow-based investment firm Marshall Spectrum Ltd., which is considering investing in the listing, said in a phone interview. “This is a sector which is not available on the market which means the placement will probably be at a premium to western firms like Google and Yahoo.”

Russian companies are planning the biggest wave of IPOs since before the credit crisis as record-low bond yields stoke investor appetite for higher returns from equities. O’Key Group SA, Russia’s third-biggest food retailer, is planning to raise $540 million in London this year, while Severstal’s gold unit, Nord Gold NV, may seek $1 billion, three people familiar with the talks said Oct. 19.

The company will use primary proceeds to partly fund the $112.5 million acquisition of a further 7.5 stake in Russian social network service vKontakte, Mail.ru said in the statement. It will own 32.49 percent of the service after the transaction.

Mail.ru revenue may jump 51 percent this year to $301 million, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., one of the IPO managers. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization are likely to rise 70 percent to $104 million, according to Goldman Sachs, which owns 1 percent of Mail.ru.

Mail.ru founders Gregory Finger, Yuri Milner and Mikhail Vinchel will be selling shares in the IPO.

Moscow-based Mail.ru holds 2.4 percent in Facebook, 5.1 percent in Groupon Inc. and 1.5 percent in Zynga Game Network, according to an Oct. 11 statement. The three stakes may be worth a total of $900 million, more than double their combined book value of $340 million, Goldman Sachs analysts estimated.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Russia’s state-run VTB Capital are also managing the IPO. The banks will take orders for the IPO from today through the week starting Nov. 8, terms show.

Fazny Zavahir: South Africa bids to host Olympics in 2020

Following its success in hosting the 2010 soccer’s World Cup, South Africa now has its eyes on the Olympic Games.

President Jacob Zuma said that South Africa would be bidding to host the 2020 Olympics, with both Durban and Cape Town in the running.

The International Olympic Committee is yet to begin the selection process, but it is scheduled to vote on the host city in Buenos Aires, Argentina in the middle of 2013.

Counting in South Africa’s favor is the fact that the IOC has indicated that a developing country may be their choice.

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), who will formally oversee a national bid for the 2020 Olympic Games, have encouraged potential South African host cities to state their interest of being involved in the process.

Following this call, Durban officials notified SASCOC of their intention. However Cape Town officials refused to commit the city to bidding for the 2020 Olympic Games.

The Cape Town mayoral committee said that it was “premature” as the city was “not ready” to undertake an Olympic bid.

Last week, Durban was announced as the only bidding province, but on September 19 the City of Cape Town requested a formal opportunity to consider the possible submission of a bid.

The province’s communications director, Pieter Cronje, said the city had asked SASCOC to give it enough time to submit a bid, but had received no response.

“Hosting the Olympics is a major project which requires guaranteed national funding, a needs assessment for the facilities and venues required, the operational capacity to host and an assessment of legacy benefits,” Cronje said in a statement.

Only after that assessment has been completed will the city decide whether to submit a bid to host the games.

“Previous communication from SASCOC asked an open-ended question about the City of Cape Town’s interest, but gave no process, format or deadline. That’s why the city is now requesting a formal opportunity to consider the possible submission of a bid,” he explained.

In response, SASCOC’s Chief Executive Officer, Tubby Reddy, posted a statement on SASCOC’s website, denying that Cape Town had not been given a deadline.

In outlining the bidding invite procedure that SASCOC followed, Reddy stated: “The notion that SASCOC messed up Cape Town’s Olympic Bid is very far from the truth and in fact is rather an attempt from some to hide their own inefficiency. SASCOC has followed due process in the bidding process and cannot be held accountable for any misunderstanding, especially on the part of the City of Cape Town.”

Cape Town has provided the green light for the development of an International Aquatic Center, as well awarding the tender for the upgrade of the Bellville Velodrome and Bellville Stadium.

Indications that the city may still be in the running.

While the hopeful cities sort out their bids, the ultimate decision will come down to SASCOC and the South African government, who would have to bid to host the event.

The road to bid for Durban has been a long one. In 2008, the IOC selected Durban as a venue for the IOC General Assembly’s Congress, due to take place next year.

Acting chief executive of Durban Tourism Perry Moodley intimated that hosting the event was a tactical move in light of the city’s plans to bid to host a summer Olympics.

He said that getting the Olympic decision-makers from around the world to Durban was important.

One of the most important long-term legacies of the FIFA World Cup was for infrastructure upgrades.

Durban’s new Moses Mabhida Stadium, which was built specifically for the soccer spectacular, can easily be converted into an 85,000-seat athletics venue and is part of the multi-sport Kings Park Sporting precinct.

Government is expected to meet with city officials next month to decide if a formal bid is to be submitted.

Bids from interested cities will only be considered in July 2011, when they will be submitted to the IOC.

On Wednesday, Durban City Manager, Michael Sutcliffe, told Xinhua that Durban’s successful hosting of several World Cup matches cemented its reputation as Africa’s events capital and is confident that Durban will win the bid.

“Over the past five years, development in the city have been organized around our ’2010 and beyond’ strategy. This has entailed ensuring that whatever we do for the World Cup is geared to also be in line with our post-2010 plans,” he said.

He added that it would be “great” to host the Olympics, Commonwealth Games or World Championship Athletics, all of which Africa deserves to host.

He said that support for the World Cup games played in the province had been “overwhelming”.

“Moses Mabhida stadium has space for an athletics track. We have ensured that everything we plan and develop must fit our long-term plans,” he said.