South Africa on Friday finally announced the five host cities for the 2013 soccer Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon/CAN).
Port Elizabeth, Rustenburg, Nelspruit, Durban and Johannesburg were chosen from a list of five cities that had applied.
The announcement made at a special post- cabinet briefing in Pretoria by Sport minister, Fikile Mbalula, followed several delays in naming the host cities for the 2013 extravaganza.
Major cities like Cape Town and Johannesburg had raised concerns about who would foot the bill of staging the event.
“A joint task team consisting the Sports Ministry and would include national Treasury will now meet host cities to discuss the funding model,” Mbalula said.
He also indicated that for the first time, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) would also contribute towards hosting the tournament.
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Mbalula said further negotiations and discussions were still under way on how the funding would be handled.
The 2013 tournament was supposed to be held in Libya, with South Africa hosting the 2017 event, but the two nations swapped hosting rights last year after the North African country was beset by political unrest.
After successfully hosting the 2010 World Cup, South Africa has the stadiums and the infrastructure to host the African showpiece.
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Naming the host cities have been plagued by questions from host cities like Cape Town and Johannesburg on who would ultimately pay for the soccer extravaganza.
Cape Town, which took the South African Football Association (SAFA) and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) took task over the hosting of the event did not make it to the final list.
Mbalula said private funders would also be coming on board and the ministry will now be meeting with individual host cities to flesh out budgeting issues.
The LOC is hoping millions will come to support African soccer.
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Polokwane, Kimberley, Bloemfontein, and Cape Town were selected to stage the 2014 African Nations Championship matches.
The sports ministry said it would also meet the SA Football Association next week to finalise the budgets for the tournaments.
Mbalula said Johannesburg would host the opening and closing matches.
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