Sports, Arts and Culture minister Gayton McKenzie says he wants to bring back Formula One racing to South Africa.

Speculation reached a high in June last year that Formula One could make a return to South Africa at the Kyalami racetrack in Johannesburg. However, the idea was abandoned due to the SA government’s ties to Russia according to reports at the time.

In 2023, there had been a gap in the F1 calendar before the Belgian Grand Prix was finally cemented on the schedule.

McKenzie who previously said he wants to make spinning the number one sport in South Africa, weighed in on the F1 issue on X on Sunday night.

I have set up meetings with relevant people already, my term will be a failure if I don’t bring one of the biggest sporting tourist events to South Africa which is F1. Our first meeting is end of August in Monaco. https://t.co/qzw2RnRYue
— Gayton McKenzie (@GaytonMcK) July 21, 2024

Meeting in Monaco

“I have set up meetings with relevant people already, my term will be a failure if I don’t bring one of the biggest sporting tourist events to South Africa which is F1. Our first meeting is end of August in Monaco,” said McKenzie.

The promises - populist others may say - that the Patriotic Alliance leader has made, have come large and quickly, and that has seen his popularity rise.

For example, the Covid-19 beneficiaries list has been seen as good and bad on the political spectrum.

It’s definitely a good thing that all the payments have been disclosed, including the total payout of over R72 million - but what about those people that applied for a bailout during Covid from government?

Did they agree to be publicly named? Almost certainly not.

Even before McKenzie saw to the releasing of this list, he promised to weed out corruption in his department.

@Golfhackno1

IOL Sport

Running a 5km race is not pap en vleis when you so overweight, I wanna thank the @NelsonMandela Foundation for inviting me, this was great fun, runners are cool 👊![CDATA[]]>🏾![CDATA[]]>👊![CDATA[]]>🏾![CDATA[]]>👊![CDATA[]]>🏾![CDATA[]]>👊![CDATA[]]>🏾 pic.twitter.com/ZyTLnZbJRQ
— Gayton McKenzie (@GaytonMcK) July 20, 2024