15 December 2020 – The New Year’s Cup tournament organisers have confirmed that the 2020 edition of the New Year’s Cup has been postponed until further notice.

The Minister of Health, honourable Dr Zweli Mkhize held a meeting with the Sarah Baartman municipality where the New Year’s Cup was well represented.

Last week on Thursday, Dr Mkhize paid a special visit to meet stakeholders at Sarah Baartman. After an extensive dialogue and serious consideration, and taking into account the state and plight of hospitals around Sarah Baartman in Makanda, and the impact the Covid – 19 pandemic has had in the Eastern Cape in general, it was unanimously decided to postpone the tournament.

The new dates for the 2021 New Year’s Cup edition will be announced in the middle of January next year.

The LOC of the tournament will also converge and revisit the safety plan for next year’s event. All qualifying teams will be informed in due course.

We have also consulted with our partners and sponsors, we unanimously resolved that people’s lives come first and we therefore want to play our part in curbing the spread of this deadly pandemic.

The tournament has grown exponentially in the last four years and has a huge following in and outside the province.

We will however, continue to conduct training programs which is led by New Year’s Cup sporting institution, and we will also be doing donations as a form of corporate social responsibility to the Sarah Baartman district and handing out personal protective equipment to frontline workers at Sarah Baartman district on 23 December and doing Newyearscup Sport Institute training programmes in conjunction with the Buffalo City Municipality on 21-22 December 2020.

Yours in Sports

New Year’s Cup Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC 2020) Mr Luyanda Papu.