South Africa’s reputation as a world class destination and host for international sports events is now well and truly established with a steady stream of global events heading for South African shores in the next few years. The latest international world championship confirmed to be held in South Africa is the 2013 World Transplant Games, an event for people who have received organ transplants.

The Games will be held in Durban from 28th July – 4th August 2013.

The hosting body, the South African Transplant Sports Association, has been a member of SASCOC since March 2009, and is an active participant in international transplant events where its members have won numerous medals in various sporting disciplines. It is also the organiser of the bi-annual national event.

While the 2010 FIFA World Cup takes centre stage at the moment, there’s another football world championship heading for South Africa straight after the World Cup.

The World Football Championships for Athletes with an Intellectual Disability is due to be held from 23 August – 11 September in Limpopo. One of the venues earmarked for the event is the Peter Mokaba Stadium, currently being used for the 2010 |FIFA World Cup.

The World Championship, which takes place every four years, was first held in the Netherlands in 1994, the event will attract participants from sixteen countries – South Africa, Germany, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Egypt, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Turkey, South Korea, Portugal, Nigeria, the Netherlands and France.

The bid for the event was submitted by the South African Sports Association for the Intellectually Impaired (SASA-II) to the organising body, the International Federation for Sport for athletes with an Intellectual Disability, in 2008. South Africa is currently ranked third in the world, and hopes to improve on this standing at the forthcoming event.

SRSA is supporting the event and will be part of the event’s organising committee. More information on the event is available at the INAS-FID website.

SRSA has (naturally so) a whole host of projects on the go during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. While many staff are deployed to help at stadia, a few are at the International Football Village at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg (here are a few photos of SRSA’s presence there). The Village is a combination fan park and hospitality village featuring big screens, food and drink, and many arts and crafts stalls where SRSA has an exhibition space and on-going activities in partnership with the German development agency GTZ. The department is also using the Village as a reception area for VIPs and location where media conferences are held (see this report on a press conference held by the Minister).

Here’s Kelly Mkhonto explaining what SRSA’s participation is about: