Lassana Palenfo, president of the Association of African National Olympic Committees (ACNOA), suggested it on FrancsJeux in an interview published Monday January 12: South Africa must apply for the 2024 Games. An expectation which will perhaps soon be fulfilled, but in a new form. According to a senior South African sports executive, Ivor Hoff, the director of sports for the Gauteng province, a draft national candidacy will very soon be presented to the country's political authorities. It will be worn, as planned, by Sam Ramsamy, member of the IOC and president of the South African Olympic committee.

Ivor Hoff explained to the site hostcity.net that the IOC's adoption of Agenda 2020 during the Monaco session last December disrupted South Africa's plans. “When Sam returned from Monte Carlo, he let it be known that he was going to make a proposal to Parliament,” he says. A proposal whose contours would no longer be limited to a city, Durban or Cape Town, or even to a province, Gauteng, but to the entire country. A South African candidacy in the broadest possible sense, behind which several provinces would line up.

Focusing the country's Olympic hopes on one city presents too many risks, says Ivor Hoff. “The costs of the Games could drive it into bankruptcy,” he says. On the other hand, a national project would fit more easily into the logic of a developing country. And it was made possible by the adoption of Agenda 2020, the IOC having made it clear during its Monaco session that the compactness of sites was no longer necessarily a priority, the emphasis now being placed on heritage , cost reduction and existing or temporary installations.

With the South African Parliament currently in recess, Sam Ramsamy will have to wait until next week to present his project. In the event of a favorable opinion, things could move quite quickly. “A decision will be made quite quickly,” predicts Ivor Hoff. At this stage, the South African project obviously still seems vague. But he would have the merit of audacity and innovation.