In the history of Olympic and Commonwealth games, as I understand it,

most hosts have been left with massive debt and often infrastructure that cannot be used sufficiently to justify their construction. In very few cases have hosts turned the events into a successful event where the income exceeds the expenses.
The monies used to construct facilities for these events it has generally been shown could be better used to meet the basic needs of the poor
Why then does SA a country in deep trouble, economically and in other respects allow itself to be the sole bidder to host the 2022 games? There seems to be a deep inferiority complex that stalks this land, where it is necessary to ‘punch above our weight’ in hosting every sporting event and to become chair of every possible international institution or the Africa representative on these. Have we not hosted enough things, for the moment?
We are passing through a deep economic crisis, with a power and water crisis which may well be unresolved in 2022 and even if resolved will require time to stabilise. Even if resolved in the sense of not having black outs we still need much time and will in order to distribute these resources to all who need them and on an equitable basis. We need to move for government that is attuned to these needs and not allow or encourage prestige projects or even ‘spectacular’ events like this evening’s show of wealth at the SONA