Mbalula claimed that "all was not lost" regarding a bid.

South Africa has until September 1 to submit bid documents to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and "a case could still be made" to his cabinet colleagues for a bid to be reactivated.

Mbalula confirmed that he was not even in the Cabinet meeting when the decision was made to abort the bid after he had collapsed during the meeting on May 25 meeting and was in hospital when his colleagues made the decision.

"When the decision was taken, we were not there," he said.

"The bidding process is quite open.

"If we're able to persuade Government otherwise and turn around things, then we'll still be able to announce [a bid].

"From our own point of view, the struggle continues.

"It's not all lost."

South Africa's Cabinet said it had considered a request by the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) to bid for 2020, but "has decided that it is better for the country to consolidate the gains of the 2010 FIFA World Cup for now".

Durban, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth were all interested in bidding.

But ithe Government were worried about the estimated $50 million (£31 million) it would cost just to bid and claimed that they needed to concentrate on the delivery of basic services to all South Africans.

Mbalula now hopes to persuade Jacob Zuma's Government to reconsider its decision before the IOC holds its Session in Durban, which is due to start on July 4.

Michael Tatalias, chief executive of the South African Tourism Services Association, told·the South African press that the decision to pull the Durban bid was "clearly political, with the Government's constituency in mind".

The ANC had just suffered defeat in local Government elections, where lack of service delivery was a major issue, claimed Tatalias.

"They feared a backlash so went the popular route and said they'd spend the money on job creation and service delivery," he said.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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