DA blames McKenzie as Jeffreys Bay dropped from top world surfing stop

By Charmaine Ndlela

The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) has rejected claims that it caused the World Surf League’s Championship Tour stop at Jeffreys Bay to drop off the 2026 calendar.

This after the Democratic Alliance (DA) accused sports minister Gayton McKenzie of failing to secure government backing to keep the contest in the country.

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But DSAC said the event — a long-running and popular fixture on the Eastern Cape coast — is privately owned and promoted, and that the decision to relocate the stop was taken by the World Surf League.

“The public narrative being spread now, by contrast, appears to suggest that the Minister has withdrawn support from the event, leading to its demise,” the department said. “This is highly inaccurate.”

The World Surf League said in a statement this week that South Africa would not feature on the 2026 schedule.

“We love J-Bay and the community there, and we’re really grateful to them for welcoming us for so many years,” said WSL CEO Ryan Crosby.

“It’s undoubtedly one of the best waves in the world, and we will continue to explore ways to return in the future. That said, we have made the difficult decision to pull Jeffreys Bay from the 2026 CT calendar. We did our very best to make J-Bay work in 2025, but the financial support isn’t there to make it viable this year.

“Our goal is to set professional surfing up for long-term success and make sure the world’s best surfers have the platform to keep advancing the sport for many years. Achieving this goal requires making decisions that prioritize the health of the overall business,” said Crosby.

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