Summarize

Prospective Wakanda City Grand Prix organisers are still waiting for feedback from government with regards a bidding process to ensure that the best suited prospect is presented to Formula 1 and the FIA for consideration to host a future South African Grand Prix.

“We have been left with little option but to go directly to Formula 1 and the FIA with our concerns,” Wakanda City CEO MK Malefane explains. “We believe that our Smart City Development with centrepiece Grand Prix Circuit ticks all the right Formula 1 boxes and that we deserve an opportunity to present our Formula 1 bid in an open and transparent manner. However, despite several representations to government and the ministry of sport, arts and culture so far, we have not yet had the courtesy of a response.

“At the same time, the South African minister of sport, arts and culture, Mr Gayton McKenzie has been posturing with rival apparent South African Grand Prix bids. South African law however requires any project requiring government involvement or financial support, to be open to a legitimate bidding process before awarding any party the rights to run any such project. Yet still we are out in the cold in spite of the brilliant prospect of the Wakanda City South African Grand Prix.

“Once again, all we ask is for the opportunity to present our case to government, which should then work through our and any other bids, before submitting the best of them to Formula 1 and the FIA as an official South African Formula 1 Grand Prix Bid. We believe that we are in a very strong position and that our bid offers South Africa, Formula 1 and the FIA a brilliant new opportunity to host a Grand Prix on a stunning new circuit as part of the most exciting urban development Africa has ever seen.” 

A Grand Prix Circuit and the race are core to the new Wakanda SuperCity. Africa’s answer to Dubai, Singapore, Monte Carlo and Hollywood, Wakanda City is earmarked for Sunday’s River in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Nelson Mandela Bay Couga Port region. Wakanda City will be extensively developed on a prime 20,000 ha site including 40 km of coastal beach and will boast all the necessary state of the art infrastructure.

That will see the development of all the necessary services including an all-new international airport, fast train links, a cruise liner terminal and harbour, and a Disney type movie studio and theme park as part of an international beachfront hotel strip. Wakanda City is situated close among South Africa’s finest Big Seven game parks, where the first phase of the development has already commenced.