Klopse can be rescued – if DA legislates

The Kaapse Klopse, or Tweede Nuwe Jaar parade, traces its origins to the 19th-century emancipation of enslaved people in the Cape Colony, who marked their annual day of respite on the 2nd of January with public musical performances. Lesser-known is the Wellington Klopse, originating in 1909 with the Merry Springboks troupe, supported by local rugby clubs and choir groups.

This festival, which is arguably over two centuries old, and has survived a decade of apathy and cancellation in the 1910s, and several years of suppression during the heyday of apartheid, is now struggling under the bureaucracy and indifference of liberal democracy.

It remains a mass event involving thousands of performers, but over the past five years, the parades have faced repeated delays and disruptions: Covid-19 cancellations in 2020-21, followed by annual date shifts and logistical uncertainties, which have diminished troupe numbers from 40 to around 14 and eroded participation momentum.

Confusion 

The 2026 edition was rescheduled for January 5 to accommodate a rugby match and a mosque day, exemplifies ongoing adaptations amid controversy – the date of the 2nd of January is already booked in the public mind, as it has been for over a hundred years – pushing it around makes everyone’s lives less certain.

The Kaapse Klopse Karnival Association (KKKA), the primary organiser, proposed rerouting the parade from its traditional city-centre path, starting at the Grand Parade, via Darling and Adderley streets, to Bo-Kaap, and then to Green Point’s Fan Walk along Somerset Road, ending inside DHL Stadium. This combines the free street procession with paid competitive segments (tickets R60-100), aiming to cut costs, compress the season due to Ramadan overlaps, and highlight historical links to apartheid-affected districts. KKKA director Muneeb Gambino defended the changes as “essential for sustainability”, noting a similar Green Point route in 2014 and troupe owners’ input.

The Democratic Alliance-led City of Cape Town maintains it does not organise the event or dictate routes, dates or fees, limiting its role to permit reviews for safety. But the City cannot entirely wash its hands here – permits were still being processed up to a week ago.

This sort of amateur hour stuff isn’t entirely on the Klopse associations, as fractious and disorganised as they have been. The Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) secured a Western Cape High Court victory on December 29 over venue access for its separate activities at Vygieskraal Stadium, ordering the City to provide alternatives at its expense. Much of these divisions can be attributed to financial disputes, with sponsorships like Hollywoodbets amplifying tensions.

The black-nationalist opposition parties (EFF and ANC), as well as the social democrats at the GOOD Party, have argued the alterations commodify the event, pricing out working-class Cape Flats families. Total costs for many can exceed R1,000 including transport, and the new routes are seen as having severed ties to emancipation sites. The renaming to “Cape Town Street Parade” or “Hollywoodbets Cape Town Street Parade” is seen as diluting heritage.

While these rebrands are in a sense the purview of the private companies involved, the event itself, Tweede Nuwe Jaar, is the actual name of the event, and the insistence of the City on avoiding using the proper name in public communications is somewhat odd. In terms of formal powers and purviews, the City is not entirely responsible for these things, but they are also involved in mediations, negotiations, and informal relations which influence these outcomes.

Brett Herron, GOOD party secretary-general and former DA councillor, picked up on this element, and has alleged municipal influence on the de facto rebranding. As he said in a late December post on X:

“The City must come clean on its role in the renaming of the Tweede Nuwejaar historical parade, the rerouting and even the ahistorical date. From my time in the City I know that there were MMCs who wanted this Cape heritage event to morph into something it was never: a Rio Carnival type event. Now it’s taking place under a generic name on 5 January -instead of on the 2nd January in the streets of the City Centre. It was never the ‘Cape Town Street Parade’. It’s part of our City’s heritage & the government of the City, investing in events, should’ve protected its history.”

Fix the date

One of the ways in which the confusion could be avoided, would be by fixing the date and route in local regulations, so that disruptions can be kept to a minimum. By booking competition venues a year in advance, troupe organisers can save themselves and the City a massive headache, and by using the money gathered at the event itself, avoid a great deal of financial difficulties for the less well-off participants, as well as guaranteeing spots for legacy participants and their families.

When the Western Cape Provincial Parliament next convenes, legislation could address these challenges via amendments to the Western Cape Cultural Commissions and Cultural Councils Act, 1998. This would impel municipal bylaws in Cape Town and Drakenstein – Cape Town’s 2009 Events Bylaw could simply be amended to include “protected cultural events” with community consultation, though Drakenstein would have to draft a new bylaw from scratch.

Provincial powers to enter agreements with municipalities under the NHRA for joint management of cultural venues may help coordinate public and private sector participants, draw in tourism and boost spectator attendance. The Commission could designate and protect intangible provincial cultural heritage events by mandating municipalities to facilitate annual occurrences with streamlined permits and venue dedications. They could align permit timelines and exclusive venue use for the 2nd of January, and create a dispute board to deal with appeals.

Such measures would provide certainty, reduce paperwork and rivalries, distribute financial burdens equitably, and lessen reliance on sponsors like Hollywoodbets; an overall beneficial reform (unless of course, Hollywoodbets were a DA donor).