Cape Town - and more specifically, its home of non-racial sport, Athlone stadium - has been chosen to officially launch South Africa's R80-million bid to bring the Soccer World Cup to Africa for the first time in 2010.
And Cape Town will host the opening game if the bid is successful.
The bid will be launched on April 30 with a soccer friendly between Bafana Bafana and Jamaica at the R66-million revamped Athlone stadium.
Preparations at stadiums countrywide are expected to reach fever pitch before Federation of International Football Associations (Fifa) site visits.
Cape Town will also be bidding for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2020 Olympic Games, but the Olympic bid was "not cast in stone" at this stage.
These were some of the announcements on Monday at a briefing by Sport Minister Ngconde Balfour and other senior politicians and officials, including Cape Town Mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, Western Cape MEC for sport and culture, Patrick McKenzie and Bafana Bafana manager, Stanley "Screamer" Tshabalala.
The winning bid will be announced in May next year.
The South African 2010 soccer bid company has an R80-million budget to get the country behind the bid and woo Fifa's 24-member executive committee members.
Balfour said he was "never more confident than now" that South Africa would pull it off, after the disappointment of losing out to Germany by one vote to host the 2006 competition.
The former Oceania Football Confederation president Charles Dempsey had refused to cast a ballot when the Fifa executive decided to award the 2006 World Cup finals to Germany.
Balfour said of Dempsey: "Thank God he is now gone."
Twelve government departments, parastatals, MECs, mayors and other senior politicians as well as the private sector will take the message about the "enormous benefits" of hosting the World Cup all over South Africa.
In the first week of next month, the bid company will meet the main South African towns likely to host World Cup games.
Balfour also asked for "patience, understanding and tolerance" when citizens may be inconvenienced because of inspection visits to venues throughout the country.
Balfour said: "It is fitting that we do it (launch the bid) in the Mother City. Every child comes from a mother and the Mother City will give birth to the bid."
He said in July 2000, when Fifa president Sepp Blatter opened a white envelope with a red seal that named Germany as the host nation for the 2006 Soccer World Cup, "it was a bitterly disappointed but magnanimous South Africa that congratulated the winning country".
He said that at the time President Thabo Mbeki had assured the then 2006 bid committee that their work had laid the foundation for South Africa to launch another attempt at hosting soccer's biggest prize.
However, this time round the bid would get buy-in from all South Africans, something lacking in the 2006 bid.
"The bid belongs to Khayelitsha, Macassar, Joe Slovo (informal settlement), Athlone, Heideveld and all other communities right across South Africa," he said.
Come May next year, when the winning bid will be announced, South Africa will be "a united nation" with it full support behind the country's bid, said Balfour.
Mfeketo said: "It is always an honour for us to host these exciting sport events. We are indeed a city of many, many exciting events.
"It is not only because of professionalism, but because of our sport-friendly infrastructure and sport-friendly people. We have a safe city and all the facilities needed.
"We will welcome players with pride and supporters with warm hearts."
McKenzie said: "This is what Cape Town has been waiting for for many years, not only Cape Town, but the continent of Africa. I am pleased that we will be doing the actual launch of the bid at the Athlone stadium.
"This a tremendous day for the city and the country, as we rally behind the soccer fraternity," he said. - Political Writer