How we can make the Tweede Nuwe Jaar even better
THE Tweede Nuwe Jaar annual road march is a tradition that dates from the 1880s and was organised by individual promoters or the City.
In the early 1990s, organising committee’s, also known as klopse boards and consisting of troupe owners, started to appear. Many of them have disappeared since then.
The Tweede Nuwe Jaar road march is Cape Town’s biggest annual cultural event and has huge media coverage which make it perfect for marketing strategies and showcasing sponsorships.
The Kaapse Klopse Karnival Association has been the organisers, or klopse board, that has been running the event for three years. However, it has created more and more animosity by restricting our community media (photographers), and banning some of our klopse members, including myself.
I want to thank the City and the City officials who assisted us, the Cape District Minstrel Board (CDMB), from the start and for going the extra mile trying to make our choral competition and Tweede Nuwe Jaar a good experience.
My suggestions for the Tweede Nuwe Jaar annual road march is to have an event that recognises every troupe and troupe owner, one that eliminates the animosity, gives the event back to the city and allowing the City to run the event fairly. The City must enforce Section 217 of the Constitution when procuring entities contracted for goods or services, to ensure that they comply with the principles of fairness, equity, transparency, competitiveness and cost-effectiveness.
The Cape Flats is where our people come from and where there is so much violence. The klopse need to be a way to bring joy back to our communities and give opportunities to all our youth.
I urge the City to intervene and bring fairness for all and bring all the governing klopse bodies together to resolve their issues.
Klopse politics and animosity must fall so that we can attract more corporate companies to sponsor these type of events with muchneeded funding so that we, as the klopse community, can be selfsustainable and keep our culture and tradition alive for another 100 years.
BENITO HOLMES | spokesperson CDMB