KwaZulu-Natal Business 2016-17 edition

SPECIAL FEATURE
Commonwealth
Games Durban 2022
For the first time in its 85-year history, the Commonwealth Games will be held in Africa,
and Durban's successful bid is set to further boost jobs and tourism.
Do visitors look forward to visiting London
or Middlesex? Sydney or New South
Wales? Cities are among the most important
marketing tools that regions and
countries have. Good branding has become a huge
issue for the world's great cities, and many of these
urban giants are vital to the economic future of
regions, and countries. Hosting events is one of the
best ways of getting a city's brand into the consciousness
of future tourists and potential investors.
The City of Durban will have that opportunity in
July 2022 – it will host the Commonwealth Games.
In hosting upwards of 4 500 athletes from 71
countries and territories from throughout the
Commonwealth, Durban will be hoping to imprint
a positive message about the city in the hearts of
tens of thousands of visitors, in addition to millions
of television viewers.
The secretary-general of the United Nations
has appointed former New York mayor Michael
Bloomberg as a special envoy to look at the future
of cities. His Future Cities forums look into a range
of issues, including climate change. The planners
behind the successful bid for Durban to host the
Commonwealth Games clearly see in the future
of this east coast city a role in transforming the
economy of KwaZulu-Natal.
They are also following international best practice.
According to the Institute of International Trade,
the areas that are most affected in a city that hosts
big events are transport systems, telecommunications,
sports facilities, housing provision and urban
culture. An improvement in each of these sectors
will materially improve the lives of Durban's citizens.
The bid put forward by eThekwini (the municipality
which runs Durban) has five big goals, all of which
are aligned with the National Development Plan:
• Improving infrastructure and accelerating the
rate of development.
• Re-engineering spatial patterns (changing where
people live).
• Uniting all South Africans around a common
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