S.Africa bids for F-1 race despite tobacco ban
Posted: Monday August 03, 1998 06:15 PM
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Sports Minister Steve Tshwete said, "It is in our interests to ensure that South Africa does not lose the chance to host the Formula One event."
Shaun Botterill/Allsport |
CAPE TOWN, (Reuters) -- South Africa officials are convinced the nation
will host a Formula One race next season after a six-year absence
despite the introduction of a bill banning tobacco advertising,
Sports Minister Steve Tshwete said on Monday.
"We will have the race," Tshwete said. "We want to clear every hurdle in
getting Formula One here."
He said Bernie Ecclestone, the boss of the Formula One
Constructors Association, had been invited to lunch with him
and president Nelson Mandela on August 19 to clear up any
problems stemming from the Tobacco Ammendment Bill.
"He is aware of what the developments are," Tshwete said of Ecclestone. "He has not reacted up to now. But I don't think it will be negative at
all. It is in our interests to ensure that South Africa does
not lose the chance to host the Formula One event."
A spokesman for AA Racing, owned by the Automobile
Association, which has handled negotiations for the event, said a
preliminary deal had been struck to stage the race.
"We have signed a contract with Bernie Ecclestone," Selwyn
Nathan told Reuters by telephone from Johannesburg. "But that
does not guarantee we will get the race. We are waiting for next
season's calendar to be published on October 1 to see."
The race, last held in South Africa in 1993, would take place in Kyalami near Johannesburg, he said, the same location as earlier F-1 races.
Nathan said he met Ecclestone last week and handed him a
copy of the Tobacco Ammendment Bill. The bill, introduced to parliament last week and expected to become law before the end of the year, bans all tobacco
advertising, promotion and sponsorship. However, Health Minister Nkososana Zuma said the bill would allow the ban to be phased in over an as-yet-unspecified period in certain sports.
The tobacco industry is a major sponsor of Formula One motor
racing around the world.
Last year when Belgium passed a law banning all tobacco
advertising and sponsorship from the start of 1999 with no
phasing-in period, Ecclestone threatened to immediately cancel
the Spa-Francorchamps Formula One race for 1998.
A rash of legal actions by the local race organizers,
businesses and the regional government against the federal
government persuaded Ecclestone to change his mind, but his
muscle flexing made a deep impact on other nations.
The European Union also passed legislation last year which
phases in bans on tobacco sponsorship of events like motor
racing and show jumping.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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