South Africa is quickly becoming a sporting country. The continent’s largest economy will bid for the 2024 Olympics and also wants to host the Commonwealth Games two years before that, the country’s sports minister Fikile Mbabula said.

This will be a U-turn from the country’s last year position that hosting an Olympics will be too costly.

“The biggest fish to catch is the 2024 Olympics,” Mbabula told the Business Day on Tuesday . “Sport plays a role in terms of infrastructure development,” he told reporters, adding South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma had already indicated the country was ready to host the Games.

South Africa however successfully bid and hosted the 2010 World Cup. The tournament’s infra-structure costs were more than $3 billion.

Cape Town lost out in the bid for the 2004 Olympics in the first attempt by an African city to host the Games. Durban was touted to bid for 2020 Olympics but plans were put on ice after the government said it would be too expensive but since last year there have been several signals of a change of heart.

Bidding for the 2024 Olympics will begin in 2015 and the International Olympic Committee will decide the winner in 2017. The next Olympics in 2016 will be held in Rio de Janeiro while Tokyo will host the 2020 Games.

The next Commonwealth Games are in Glasgow later this year and on Australia’s Gold Coast in 2018.

Gideon Sam, the president of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, and vice-president of the Commonwealth Games Federation, said the 2022 Games would be Africa’s turn, with the likely candidates to come from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.