Cape Town - Three days after the City’s online stakeholder meeting on the management of the abandoned Constantia 2 baboon troop, where the affected community and parties engaged on solutions to manage it, a female from the troop was killed over the weekend.
The female baboon was shot on Sunday and had to be euthanised by the SPCA due to the severity of its wounds. Activists are now furious and have called for an end to talks and discussions, and immediate action by the City.
Conservation lobby groups and activists had for a while been calling for the reinstatement of rangers for the troop, which were withdrawn in April.
Cape of Good Hope SPCA chief inspector Jaco Pieterse said the baboon was shot and the bullet punctured its lungs. Pieterse said the organisation was awaiting post-mortem feedback to provide more information.
“Sadly, her condition was of a such poor state that she had to be humanely euthanised,” he said.
Lorraine Holloway from Baboons of the South said the shooting was yet another sad reflection of the City’s lack of decision-making regarding the baboon management within the current contract, ending in June 2023.
Holloway said that at the recent online meeting with the City and Constantia residents, it was requested as a matter of urgency that rangers be reinstated and that a long-term solution be found for the well-being of this troop. Holloway said that to date no action had been taken, and the conflict continued.
“The bitter truth of it is that the authorities have never jointly ‘grasped the nettle’ and come up with a plan that meets conservation and community imperatives. Everything that has been done has been peripheral rather than problem-solving.
“The long-awaited Strategic Management Plan that should be out by the end of the year seems to be the only light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
Spatial Planning and Environment mayoral committee member Eddie Andrews said rangers had been withdrawn from the troop as they had little to no impact and failed in keeping the baboons out of the area.
Andrews said proposals and concerns raised at the meeting would be submitted to the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team, consisting of representatives from SANParks, the City and Cape Nature.
He said the task team was working on a draft Strategic Management Plan for the Chacma Baboons in the Cape Peninsula, which was expected to be available for public comment by the end of November.
mthuthuzeli.ntseku@inl.co.za