By David Gold
May 4 – The South African Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula has confirmed that the host cities for next year’s African Cup of Nations next year will be Johannesburg, Nelspruit, Rustenburg, Port Elizabeth and Durban.
The announcement has previously been twice delayed to allow more time to agree Host City Agreements.
Johannesburg’s Soccer City Stadium (pictured top), which staged the final of the World Cup, will host the Opening and Closing ceremonies and the final.
Missing out were Bloemfontein, Durban, Cape Town and Polokwane.
However, these cities have been awarded the right to stage games during the 2014 African Championships.
South Africa was awarded the right to host the African Nations Cup in 2013 after Libya had to relinquish hosting rights because of violent political upheaval in the country.
They will now host the competition in 2017, when South Africa had been originally due to stage it.
“We are really excited and pleased by the announcement made by the Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula because this clearly moves the organising committee from a planning mode into an execution mode,” said Mvuzo Mbebe, the chief executive of South Africa 2013.
“The cabinet should be thanked for having put an approval stamp on South Africa hosting the AFCON 2013, and for us to celebrate with the rest of Africa.
“We shall duly inform CAF of the decision of cabinet so that we all in earnest get the ball rolling.”
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