Cape Town - Controversy and allegations of “selling out” the traditional and historical Tweede Nuwe Jaar event have whirled in the wake of the annual minstrel carnival earlier this week.
The Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association’s (CTMCA) chairperson, Sedick Soeker, has questioned the legitimacy of minstrel troupes under the Kaapse Klopse Karnival Association’s (KKKA’s) umbrella, while alleging that the event has excluded them from important decisions – including the renaming of the event.
Soeker said the “rebel organisation” KKKA was endorsed by the City of Cape Town to “attend to all minstrel activities and to commercialise our historical and heritage celebration of the Tweede Nuwe Jaar which is celebrated as the Freedom of Slaves Street Parade”.
“This decision was taken by the KKKA, which do not have the right to sell our culture and heritage for money, in conjunction with Hollywoodbets for the renaming of this iconic street parade to the The Cape Town Hollywoodbets Street Parade, which was not an all inclusive process, but rather a City of Cape Town (decision) to exclude the broader minstrel fraternity and communities,” said Soeker.
KKKA director Muneeb Gambeno, has, however, rubbished the claims of selling out the event, saying the event was renamed due to the new title sponsor coming on board, with which they had secured a three-year funding agreement and partnership.
Gambeno said a series of litigation processes in the past resulted in the CTMCA losing their events permit for breaching requirements.
“We know what our obligation is – to continue hosting these events for our communities and to keep the culture alive.
The carnival is under water every year and we have also had to, after two years of not hosting the event due to the pandemic, secure funding and to attract funders,” said Gambeno.
“What it comes down to is that we have a group of provocateurs who want to politicise, disrupt and gain control of the event for selfish wants.We want to build the carnival and want to attract money to support the event.
We have a responsibility to ensure the event still happens to celebrate the history and culture of our people,” said Gambeno.
Safety and security Mayco member JP Smith said: “The City is a supporter of the Tweede Nuwe Jaar Parade (Cape Town Street Parade) by providing funding towards the necessary event logistics to ensure success of the event. The KKKA was the only organisation who applied for funding and an event permit to host the Tweede Nuwe Jaar event. The organisation has been organising the event successfully since 2017 with support from the City.”
Smith added: “The KKKA has been compliant with all the permitting requirements and has met the criteria for funding during this period. It is due to the compliance with all legislative requirements and successfully hosting this event during that period that the City has committed funding to the KKKA for the next two years.
“Notwithstanding any particular choice of sponsor, the City does not agree with the statement that the minstrels carnival is being ‘commercialised’ and would like to point out that all successful large iconic events throughout the world that create jobs and opportunities for participants do so by attracting commercial sponsorships and that prior to the event being organised by the KKKA, the lack of commercial sponsorship had been a shortcoming of the previous events and had prevented the event from growing as it should.”
Cape Times
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