By Alec Hogg*
A highlight growing up was the annual trek from our Newcastle home to the Kyalami racetrack for the South African Grand Prix. I shared the back of the bakkie with Dad’s scaffolding that gave us an excellent view of those triumphs by superstars Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti, Niki Lauda and our home town hero Jody Scheckter.
After moving to Joburg, a perk of my job was getting invited by some media schmoozing company or other to a race watched everywhere on earth. But in 1993, champagne from the giant bottles got sprayed at Kyalami for the last time. Formula One left SA. Since then, the race has never really looked like returning.
___STEADY_PAYWALL___Until this year. Egged on by the “dream” endorsement of F1 champion Lewis Hamilton and receptive post-Ecclestone business partners, the planets were aligned. The SA Government eventually kicked in with an $18m guarantee and last month, everyone who mattered, gathered in Switzerland to seal the F1 deal for Kyalami 2024.
Contracts were never signed. South Africa’s arms-to-Russia scandal provided pause. The “pens down” moment, though, was SA’s guaranteed immunity to war criminal Vladimir Putin. Our deranged government officials believe they can have their cake and eat it. Not in the real world. Not in the premier league. Damn arrogant amateurs.
Sterkte
Alec
Three interviews on BizNewsTV you may have missed that are really worth catching –
- Paul O’Sullivan explains why SAPS’s new kidnapping unit looks like an inside job – click here.
- Real life “Yellowstone” with Free State farmer Bees van Blerk on rustlers and farmers raiding both sides of the Lesotho border weekly – click here.
- Electrical engineer and CSIR energy specialist Monique le Roux explains why loadshedding will be beaten by gas and renewables – click here.
