Minister Gayton McKenzie: FIFA World Cup 2026 Delegation and Programme Expenditure

Over the past week, questions have been raised in Parliament and in the media about spending connected to South Africa’s engagement with the FIFA World Cup 2026, most of it centred on a figure of approximately R31 million, which is an amount that was openly disclosed in a parliamentary reply where there was nothing to hide.

As tabled in Parliament, the reply set out the following breakdown of programme-related expenditure:

Here is the breakdown of programme participants:

Total number of participants sent to Mexico and USA: 151, excluding service provider team.

The final consolidation of what private sponsors covered, with possible shortfalls to be funded separately, is currently underway through post-event reconciliation.

The R7.86 million covered the official delegation responsible for delivering the programme. That included international flights, accommodation, local transport, travel insurance, daily allowances and all approved travel costs for me, executive management and officials responsible for logistics, communications, protocol, governance and programme delivery, as well as the South African artists and cultural representatives who formed part of our official delegation. People don’t organise an international programme on Zoom. You need the right people on the ground.

The R6.71 million funded the South Africa 2010 Legends Programme. The match between the 2010 Bafana Bafana legends and Mexico’s 2010 legends was filled to capacity. Our football legends didn’t just travel to watch football. They represented South Africa in an official exhibition match and legacy events that celebrated our football history and kept the spirit of 2010 alive while promoting South African football on the global stage.

The R3.36 million funded official hospitality venues in Atlanta and Monterrey. These were not parties. They were working spaces where government leaders, investors, sponsors, football officials and international partners met to discuss investment, tourism, sport and future opportunities for South Africa. That is how countries build relationships and attract opportunities.

The R3.01 million covered 294 official FIFA match tickets across three host cities. Those tickets formed part of the approved programme and allowed our delegation, stakeholders and programme participants to attend official World Cup fixtures linked to South Africa’s activation and engagement programme.

The R10 million built South Africa’s physical presence at the FIFA World Cup. It paid for the design, construction and installation of our exhibition spaces in Mexico City, Atlanta and Monterrey. It covered the branding, décor, lighting, sound, screens, technical equipment, furniture, logistics, transport, security, maintenance and the teams who built, operated and later dismantled everything.

It funded the actual programme that thousands of football fans experienced. South African musicians performed live. Our chefs introduced the world to South African food. Local artists and crafters displayed and sold proudly South African products. Businesses promoted South Africa as a tourism destination and an investment destination. Visitors walked away with a better understanding of our country, our people and what South Africa has to offer. That is not wasteful spending – it is nation building, economic promotion and creating opportunities for South Africans.

Spending a budget is not a scandal

Spending a departmental budget on the department’s mandate is not, in itself, a wrongdoing. The FIFA World Cup was the single largest global sport, arts and culture platform of the year, and it comes only every four years. Spending public money to position South Africa on such a platform is not a deviation from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) mandate – it is exactly the DSAC mandate.

If any person believes money was improperly allocated, appropriated, or spent, or that I personally benefited in a corrupt manner, I invite them to bring that evidence forward, to Parliament, the Auditor-General, or to any law enforcement body with the power to investigate it. That has not happened. What has happened is that opposition parties have taken a lawful, budgeted, mandate-aligned spend and tried to make it sound sinister. They have made it sound as though I spent R31 million on myself, when my own costs totalled just over R1 million and included the need to fly back to South Africa for June 16 midway through the World Cup group stages.

A total of well over 150 people participated and were paid for. I did not approve this programme for myself, it was done for the country.

I would remind the DA in particular that it is government’s job to spend its budget on the mandate it was allocated for. My department did exactly that. Their own Western Cape government, by contrast, has had to return more than R800 million in unspent housing funds to National Treasury over the past two financial years. That was money meant for the poorest South Africans still waiting for homes, some for over three decades. Some of the state-offered rental buildings on the Cape Flats no longer have stairs. Water seeps into them. They have mould. And yet hundreds of millions are sent back and are not spent.

A rare platform, and we used it

South Africa does not get a FIFA World Cup on its doorstep, or even on our continent, every year. We had a rare opportunity to put South Africa in front of a global audience – as a tourism destination, an investment destination, and a home of world-class sport, arts and culture talent. We used it.

No sporting event globally compares to the FIFA World Cup in terms of impact, not even an Olympic Games.

In Mexico City, we funded and attended the Legends Match and the opening fixture against Mexico at the Estadio Azteca, visited the Pyramids of Teotihuacan as part of our cultural diplomacy, and held direct engagement with the organisers of Formula 1 in Mexico to gather commercial lessons on the hosting of the Mexico City Grand Prix. We met bilaterally with Mexico’s Secretary of Culture, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, and with CONADE Director-General Rommel Pacheco, and we ran the Ekhaya activation at the Centro Nacional de las Artes, putting South African arts, culture and performing artists in front of a Mexican and international audience. No other African country had a stall, never mind a pavilion area, among the other exhibiting countries, and we were the biggest hit among the endless thousands of locals visiting tourists passing through every day. Mopani worms became popular in Mexico because of our chefs’ work there.

In Atlanta, we supported the team through their match against Czech Republic, ran fan engagement, and hosted further cultural and artistic activations throughout the city. I attended the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce as a keynote speaker and panellist.

In Monterrey, our delegation supported Bafana Bafana’s match against South Korea and ran the City Fest San Pedro activation, extending our cultural and tourism promotion beyond the stadium.

In Los Angeles, I attended Bafana Bafana’s knockout stage match, and had been exploring numerous opportunities for arts and culture that tie into the diaspora and investment landscape in the U.S., including setting up a special exhibition at the Grammy Museum and having South Africa as a country of focus at the Pan African Film Festival. This work started before the World Cup had even kicked off.

These were just some among many engagements in a fully packed ministerial schedule. This was not a holiday. It was a coordinated national branding, cultural diplomacy and investment-promotion programme.

What the State funded – and what it didn’t

It is also important to be plain about what the State paid for, and what it did not. Private sector partners – including Brand South Africa, Coca-Cola, HONOR, Betway, Cell C and Old School – funded Lucky Fans, journalists, podcasters and influencers who travelled as part of this programme, along with further fan mobilisation activities. That sponsorship sat outside the Department’s own expenditure. It reduced the amount that would otherwise have fallen to the State, not the other way around. I personally solicited more than R5 million in this way from our generous sponsors, who will continue to work with the Department on further exciting projects in time to come.

The goodwill and spirit generated by the group of Lucky Fans was something money cannot buy. Even so, when I became aware of the massive media and fan attention one additional young South African fan was generating, I personally invited Thato Zondi, the proud Zulu girl, to join us at the game in Monterrey and I paid for her flights and accommodation costs myself.

On me, personally

My own documented travel for this trip – flights, accommodation and insurance, as invoiced by the department’s travel agent – came to R1 058 379.75. That was my full personal footprint within the department’s total travel spend for the delegation, over a five week period, including a mandatory trip home in mid-June for attendance of the official June 16 commemoration in Soweto.

Rather than a dedicated driver in every city, I took a lift with my adviser in his respective rental cars over the entire period, instead of hiring dedicated chauffeurs. When the need arose, I used Ubers and taxis but did not opt for dedicated, pricey official ground transport options. I turned down expensive state protocol lounges in every city we visited – because I wanted to contain budget costs. I even turned down claiming my own subsistence and travel allowance of R55,000 for these five weeks of travel, for the same reason.

When a big delegation of my family joined me on part of this trip, they paid for their own flights and accommodation, in full. Not one rand of that was state money. For the record, I have not had the state pay for the travel of any member of my family, since I became a minister. I have seen people online claiming that the state paid for my family, and targeting them. These are lies.

I wish to remind South Africans that the politicking of political party members, some in opposition, some in government themselves, should not be confused with accountability. I have to appeal to them, and all South Africans, to understand the harm being done whenever we cause a hue and cry over the spending associated with work travel and major events. As government, we try to attract serious players to take South Africa seriously, but it becomes difficult to make our case to the likes of Formula One, LIV Golf, World Athletics, the International Olympic Committee, and so on, when these same decision makers are confronted by constant headlines from South Africa that it is supposedly unacceptable for a Minister to travel to promote his country.

Even worse, sponsors become reluctant to partner with government if they face being harassed and supposedly associated with “wrongdoing”. This is not the way to promote South Africa as an investment destination. I remain accountable, and we are accounting for every cent, but the reaction is so often alarmist for no reason.

The implication has been that I spent R31 million on myself, instead of it being distributed among 75 people, along with the project delivery service provider, with as much as half of the rest of the total delegation sponsored.

At a time when detractors were trying to spread a message that South Africa is a xenophobic country, we were there, showing the world a friendly, positive face. Driving and attracting international-level events is one of DSAC’s core mandates, and that is what we were doing. South Africa came out of this World Cup as one of the most popular and loved countries that participated. These are not small wins, and I don’t mention it to boast but to put in perspective that if you want positive outputs then you need to be willing to put in the investment.

Our country will not be remembered and placed on the world’s agenda if we don’t put it there. Other countries are doing everything in their power to gain attention and benefit from potential tourism, investment and goodwill. We cannot be left behind.

Every rand accounted for

This programme was not run loosely. It was implemented through approved submissions, departmental delegations and budget controls, and it remains subject to the PFMA, Treasury Regulations and National Treasury’s cost-containment measures. Before any rand was spent, the programme required prior approval. State-funded and sponsor-funded activities were accounted for separately. Every invoice and proof of payment is being verified, and tickets, hospitality, officials, artists, sponsored fans, media participants and implementing-partner personnel are all being kept as distinct categories, precisely so that a reliable audit trail exists.

The Department is preparing a consolidated close-out report, to be finalised once every invoice, travel claim, sponsorship contribution and implementing-partner account has been reconciled. When it is ready, it will be tabled, and I remain available to account to the Portfolio Committee, as I always have been.

For media enquiries:
Ms. Stacey-Lee Khojane
Spokesperson: Office of the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture
E-mail: StaceyK@dsac.gov.za 
Cell: +27 77 608 7579

Ms. Zimasa Velaphi
Head of Communication and Marketing: Department of Sport, Arts and Culture 
E-mail: ZimasaV@dsac.gov.za 
Cell: +27 72 172 8925

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