News24 | Court battle over Cape Town minstrel association competition not over as new appeal launched

The Cape Town Minstrels Carnival Association protesting at the Western Cape High Court where it is set to face off with the City of Cape Town.

• The City of Cape Town has lodged another appeal in the ongoing legal fight over a venue for the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association’s January 2026 competition.
• The move follows a dramatic New Year’s Eve High Court ruling ordering the City to urgently secure an alternative venue in line with a previous ruling, even with an appeal pending.
• The CTMCA says the City’s proposed alternatives are not for the agreed January dates.

A legal battle over a venue for the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association’s (CTMCA) January 2026 competition appears to be far from over, with the City of Cape Town launching another appeal – two days after the competition was supposed to kick off.

The CTMCA’s legal representative, Junaid Jumat, said the organisation was on Friday notified that the City had lodged another appeal against the latest order.

He said the organisation would be meeting to discuss the way forward.

The legal showdown stems from the City’s withdrawal of its approval for the use of Vygieskraal Stadium, citing noncompliance with safety regulations, in the months leading up to the competition, which was set to run from 1 to 24 January.

News24 previously reported that the Western Cape High Court had issued a dramatic midnight ruling on New Year’s Eve compelling the City to urgently secure a venue for the competition in line with a previous ruling to this effect – even in the face of a pending appeal.

READ | Midnight court ruling forces Cape Town to secure venue for minstrel competition

Judge James Lekhuleni ruled that the City’s conduct violated constitutionally protected cultural rights and ordered it to find an alternative venue immediately.

The CTMCA has accused the City of systemic discrimination and delaying tactics, emphasising the cultural significance of the event and the irreparable harm caused by its potential cancellation. The City argued the application lacked urgency and merit, but the court disagreed.

The City confirmed that it had now filed another appeal bid, saying that the High Court “expects the impossible: to provide a venue that simply isn’t available on the dates requested”.

The City said it had offered to help the CTMCA by making the Athlone Stadium available on mid-week dates in January and a weekend in February.

“As early as September, the City informed the CTMCA that there is not a single available stadium venue in the whole city during any of the January weekends. They are all either already booked for Klopse events by other associations or are not suitable for medium-risk Sasrea-graded events. SAPS applies this risk rating to all minstrel events, which limits the number of suitable public or private venues,” the City said.

“It must be noted that the CTMCA did not act timeously to secure a venue and meet permitting requirements, and instead waited three months before filing an urgent application.”

CTMCA director Sedick Soeker said the organisation was still waiting for clarity from the City of Cape Town, as none of the proposed options were for the requested dates. This despite the court having made “it quite clear that they need to be in compliance before 1 January”, he said.

Soeker expressed his frustration at the delay, saying that the dates in early January had been chosen to allow the public to watch the competition before returning to work.

“The date has been set aside. The judge made it clear to them that they need to come up with a solution to find a venue suitable for us to keep our competitions. It was scheduled, and we were supposed to be getting on with it already. What about the service providers that we have appointed? They need to take this into consideration. The people are ready to go,” he said.

“The City thinks that they are a law unto themselves,” he said.

Meanwhile, the City released a statement on Friday to say that it was “all systems go” ahead of the “official Tweede Nuwe Jaar Festival on Monday”.

This event – organised by the Kaapse Klopse Karnival Association – is “a completely separate event not to be confused with the court application brought by a different minstrel organisation – the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association – related to the CTMCA’s late and incomplete event application for the use of Vygieskraal Stadium”, the City said.