Fears that the Ironman African Championship will be relocated to another city have been allayed by the event’s organisers and the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality – but it all hinges on the talks being successfully concluded by June 16.And one of the sticking points is the SMMEs.Failure to seal the deal by next weekend will see the bids to host the event opened to other cities.This was confirmed by Ironman SA managing director Keith Bowler on Thursday.However, the municipality’s executive director of sports, recreation, arts and culture, Noxolo Nqwazi, was confident that the negotiations under way at present on a three-year contract to stage the event in Port Elizabeth would end in a positive result for the city.“I can confirm that we will be staging an Ironman event in Port Elizabeth in April [2020],” she said.Nqwazi said one of the main sticking points in the negotiations was around the involvement of and contracts awarded to SMMEs for the work required to stage the event.Questions around the future of the event were raised after rumours began going around that the city could lose the triathlon which, along with a one-off world championship event, has been hosted on the metro’s coastline for the past 15 years.Asked whether the prized event – which provides significant promotional and financial benefits for the Bay and business sectors such as tourism – would be relocated to another city, Nqwazi said: “Not as far as we know.“We did get wind of that from social media but, at this stage, it’s just business as usual as far as the negotiations go.“The negotiations are for another three-year contract and are in progress.“There is nothing unusual about the current negotiation process, and as far as that goes, it is business as usual.“One of the sticking points over the past two events has been the involvement of SMMEs,” she said, referring to SMME threats to shut down the site on the eve of the event earlier in 2019.“The involvement of the SMMEs is an important component of the event and we believe the events should be leaving some kind of legacy – which would be the inclusion of SMMEs to afford them business opportunities and aspects such as training and upskilling.”Nqwazi said this had been explained to the Ironman owners during a meeting with them in Vienna on Monday.“We found that we needed to discuss these issues at the top level.“They [Ironman] do not know about this country’s BBBEE policies and policies which require big business to build small business.“But our reception there was very good and the reaction to our points of view on these matters was also good.“It has been like a marriage that has lasted for 15 years but got to that stage when we start taking each other for granted.“So the meeting was like a counselling session for both of us and provided an opportunity to review our terms of engagement.“We have decided to stay married,” she said.Nqwazi said that as far as she was aware, the current negotiations were simply down to details – which included those pertaining to SMME involvement – and that the city would also be bidding to host additional Ironman events.“So once the due diligence is done, the matter will go before council for a decision on the three-year contract renewal.“We need to take the SMMEs into account and to do that up front.“This way we avoid any risks around that going forward,” she said.Her confidence in a successful negotiation was echoed by mayor Mongameli Bobani and municipal spokesperson Kupido Baron. This came after the new president of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, Andrew Muir, had offered to mediate in an effort to ensure that the city would retain its relationship with Ironman.Bobani told a Port Elizabeth radio station on Thursday that the municipality would meet the June 16 deadline to sign the new deal and that the challenges around the SMMES had been resolved.Bowler had said earlier it was imperative that a memorandum of understanding be reached before the deadline.“We’ve drawn a line in the sand of June 16 which we cannot cross because if a deal is not reached by then, other interested cities need to be afforded the opportunity to pitch for Ironman,” he told a Bay radio station.Muir said the chamber was on standby should intervention be required.“The chamber fully supports the retention of the event in the Bay,” he said.“As such, we have offered to mediate or play a facilitation role towards achieving this.“We understand that the current negotiations are centred on the signing of a new three-year contract.“We also recognise that these iconic events are critical to our city to stimulate investment and interest, and the Ironman championship has a huge following and reach globally and is a showcase event for our metro.“But more importantly, there’s a humanitarian component to the event as funds are raised for local charities.“The Ironman galvanises the city and it becomes a centre of excellence.“We need to keep events such as this and use them as a platform to attract many other events,” he said.Ironman SA said in a statement that it was “hopeful of a positive outcome from talks with the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality concerning the future home of the Ironman African Championship”.“We are heartened by mayor Bobani’s public commitment to furthering these good ties and ensuring this world-renowned event stays in Nelson Mandela Bay for at least the next three years until 2022.”