Our beloved Kaapstad is almost ready to present to the world the biggest minstrel spectacle to hit Africa in the form of the Cape Town Street Parade come Tweede Nuwe Jaar.
Yes mense, it is no longer the Tweede Nuwe Jaar road march, or the road march, or the klopse se road march, it now has one definitive name that perfectly describes what we do every year on 2 January - the Cape Town Street Parade.
Muneeb Gambeno, director of the Kaapse Klopse Klopse Assosiasie, says the public can expect a well organised event. One that starts on time, ends on time and that will not only showcase our people’s talent, but one that will also show that we are capable of running a major historical event of this nature ourselves.
There has been lots of talk about floats being added. It will not happen this year due to budget constraints, but it is an initiative that the KKKA is working towards and believe will be a positive enhancement to the parade in the near future.
A screen will be erected in Bo-Kaap and the activities in front of the City Hall will be live-streamed to the screens so that the mense in the Bo-Kaap can have an idea of what’s happening at the main stage throughout the course of the day.
LIVE STREAM: City Hall to the Bo-Kaap
The parade will start with an opening ceremony and lots of local entertainers are on the bill as the KKKA believes that klops should also provide a platform for our local entertainers to shine.
It is now official that the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association no longer has Athlone Stadium as their venue and many teams from the CTMCA have made their way to KKKA to play the carnival competition.
I am sure many of you may be wondering: So what if the CTMCA teams move over to the KKKA - are they going to play against each other in their own section?
Muneeb was clear when he answered with a firm: “No, they will not. We the KKKA have our criteria and rules and we will have a draw.
“Troupes will compete against the teams which they have been drawn against and there will be two sections made up of all troupes mixed together.
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“The intention is to play the carnival to the end and have a sectional winner, then the top, say three, from each section will move to the carnival kings competition and the winner of the champs will be crowned the carnival kings 2018.
“The competitions for the two sections will take place at Athlone Stadium and the grand finale will be hosted at Cape Town Stadium, with all the other teams who did not qualify for the finale jolling into Cape Town Stadium for a klopse jol, second to none, one last time.”
For the past few years, there has been lots of debate about who is the best minstrel troupe in the Cape and from where things are standing now, it looks like finally the paying public will have the answer to this question.
For years the KKKA troupes have been frowned upon by the top guns of the CTMCA, who believed that they are the bigger klopse, and that they are the true carnival kings.
This year is shaping up in such a way that finally this debate can be settled, that is if everybody moves over and plays under one umbrella.
If we put the klops politics aside and look at this purely from an entertainment perspective, then the public is in for an amazing season of klops.
Ek sal nie eens mind om R100 te betaal om daai te sien nie.
When speaking to Gambeno, one can tell that he is not just lawyer to the klopse, he is a klopsman first.
At the age of 42, he has 38 years of experience in the minstrel fraternity and got his first klops gear when he was just four years old.
His father Anwar Gambeno is a minstrel and klopse legend and the Gambeno family plays klops - from Muneeb’s mother sewing the gears to the coaching of the items.
Gambeno says that people need to understand that the KKKA have the best intentions for klops and he is one of you, with klops running through his veins, so he understands the struggles of the sport.
KLOPS MAN: Muneeb Gambeno, KKKA
And with time, he intends to continue to utilise his set of skills and klopse experience to help make klopse sustainable.
With that said, let’s put the fighting, doubting, bickering and social media cat fights aside and work together and make this season of klops the spectacular that it can be.
For more information regarding the parade, like the Cape Town Street Parade page on Facebook.