Taxpayers can't pay for grand visions

The old Scottish proverb that "if wishes were horses, beggars would ride" has a latter-day equivalent with Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie, because he seems to believe that wishes are horsepower and enough of them will bring us a Formula One Grand Prix.

The man who has long since stolen Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi's title as South Africa's sound-bite king has now set up a "bid committee" to prepare a pitch to the sport's controlling body, the FIA, for this country to hold a Grand Prix as soon as 2027.

According to McKenzie, the enormous amount of money the event is going to cost – R2 billion by his estimation, although similar events have cost far more elsewhere – is the least of his worries.