Lynda Silk, Cape Peninsula Civil Conservation chairperson
The City of Cape Town publicly undertook to address, with colleagues at SANParks and Cape Nature, the urgent matter of interim or ongoing baboon monitors or baboon rangers on the Cape Peninsula, with funding possibly through a grant-in-aid, and to make public whatever proposals by September 30. This deadline has passed, and there is still no announcement.
We are still waiting. It is now October and staff of the baboon management service provider, who were issued retrenched notices more than a month ago, are still waiting anxiously to hear how their skills may or may not be used. They have families to support, and although it is now as soon as the end of next month that they seem to be without jobs, they still don’t know the City’s plan going forward.
Communities are waiting. Civic bodies and conservation bodies are waiting. We are all waiting as the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Team misses yet another deadline.
Some of the other self-imposed deadlines missed by “the joint task team” include, signing of a memorandum of agreement, publishing of the baboon strategic management plan, meetings of “public engagement” and the formation of the Baboon Advisory Group.
That this task team was “working together” for a year without a memorandum of agreement was initially a red flag, for no true working together would have been possible without one; that the memorandum of agreement is now so scant as to include no practical provision for real working together remains a key reason why there is widespread lack of faith in the capacity of this collective to come up with any real workable solutions.
In the interim when lives are on the line (that is the lives of workers and the lives of baboons), the non-response comes over callous and uncaring, to the public who already see the task team as being out of touch with real needs.
Having been in discussions now for more than 27 months, for the task team, at this late stage, with currently less than two months of ranger service contracted on the ground, not to provide a statement of proposal for at least interim baboon management on ground service from the end of next month makes it less likely that whatever proposals they have, could be put in place in time to actually be workable by 1 December.
All of the above is especially relevant given that the timeline for currently contracted rangers to be on the ground from the end of December to end of November, was unexpectedly shortened only a month ago, with no public announcement thereof. The last public statement from the task team issued on August 29 on the Cape Nature website said: “An interim solution will address the transitioning period starting on 1 January 2025”, and “A short-term solution will address the December period as the current urban baboon programme is winding down from the end of November 2024 onwards.”
While the task team refused to issue any statement on this matter to the media, citing pending legal action as a reason for their lack of communication, we wish to point out that it is not only the parties involved in litigation that have an interest in baboon management. For the authority who is running baboon management to be silent at this stage is shocking and inappropriate when there are thousands of people affected by the lack of baboon management by the end of November, and this being a time of year when the tourist season is at its peak. This can be considered an act of bad faith on the part of the task team.
Cape Peninsula Civil Conservation provides ongoing education and seeks humane solutions in the best interests of humans and all biodiversity in the Table Mountain National Park, which, of course, includes the urban edges. We are very concerned that the City is not giving clarification to the public and will be taking legal advice.
We will not just sit back and let the baboon ranger programme disappear. We find it very disappointing that, despite an undertaking from the City’s attorney’s to us, the City of Cape Town has not presented the way forward as they have undertaken to do. Should we receive verification that the ranger programme is going to be terminated, we will immediately take steps and institute action.
• The Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team responds:
Options have been reviewed and supply-chain processes are being initiated in order to enable a presence of baboon rangers in affected communities in coming months
A short-term solution will address the December period as the current urban baboon programme is winding down from the end of November 2024 onwards
An interim solution will address the transitioning period starting on 1 January 2025
The longer term options under consideration include a grant-in-aid with a non-profit organisation or the creation of a special purpose vehicle to assist with the implementation of the area-based solutions and other tasks that must operationalise the baboon strategic management plan and ensure the transitioning to a more sustainable urban baboon programme which involves communities, as well as the parties to the task team.
The details of the longer term solution will be communicated once finalised