Cape Town - 31 December: Cape Malay Choirs marched through the streets of Cape Town for the first time since New Year’s Eve 2019. The annual choir parades were not held since 2020 as a result of South Africa’s lockdown restrictions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic which started spreading from China in December 2019. South Africa went into a full level 5 lockdown in March 2020, which affected most public events in the country.

The Malay Choirs marching on New Year’s Eve also known as Nag Troepe (Night Troupes) and Second New Year (2 January) street parade are rooted in in South Africa’s slave and colonial history. Malay slaves brought from Malaysia and Indonesia by the British used these festivals to mimic and mock their masters. Slaves were given the second of January every year to celebrate.

This year people lined the streets in front of the Cape Town City Hall and in Bo Kaap to watch the choirs and minstrel troupes entertain the crowds as they made their way through the streets of the Cape Town CBD to Bo Kaap (known in colonial times as the Slave Quarter).

Cape Town’s Deputy Mayor, Eddie Andrews, joined the crowds at the City Hall to watch the Malay Choir Troupes march up Darling Street towards Bo Kaap. Andrews said: “I think welcome back. It’s been a two year hiatus where we could not host events. This event of course is a first event that we could host at full capacity, last year we couldn’t host it, earlier in the year we could host a 50% capacity event. So we welcome back the event. It’s a very important event. We are proud partners of this event purely because of the cultural aspect of it. So we’re very proud to be here tonight.”