In an exclusive interview with SABC Sport at the Four Seasons Hotel in Rabat, Morocco, McKenzie said the move forms part of the SA government’s strategy to attract international sporting events and boost the economy.
“North and Central Africa have been hosting this tournament; it’s now time for Southern Africa, it’s our turn,” McKenzie said. “If we let this opportunity pass, it will be two decades without AFCON hosting. We have the infrastructure, human capital and everything else that’s needed.”
Southern Africa last hosted the tournament in 2013, in SA Since then, the competition has been held in Central Africa (Equatorial Guinea 2015, Gabon 2017, Cameroon 2019), West Africa (Ivory Coast 2023) and North Africa (Egypt 2019, Morocco 2025). The 2027 edition is scheduled for East Africa, with Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as hosts.
McKenzie stressed the importance of regional cooperation. “Some would say the time has come to stop playing small. We are not a small country, we are a great country, and we are willing to work together and be neighbourly,” he said. “They are going to have to make a very strong case if AFCON is not to come to Southern Africa in 2028.”
SAFA has already begun mobilising discussions with counterparts in Botswana and Namibia. The deadline to submit bids is 1 February, and the final proposal will be supported by the respective governments.
SA and Angola remain the only Southern African nations to have hosted AFCON in the tournament’s history, with SA hosting in 1996 and 2013, and Angola in 2010.
–SABCSport/ChannelAfrica–
