Cape Town - There is no clear indication of what will happen when the contracts for baboon rangers come to an end in December.
NCC Environmental Services has been employed by the City of Cape Town to manage the Urban Baboon Programme in recent years.
Baboon rangers are part of this, and their duties include keeping the troops away from homes and preserving the animals as near to their natural habitat as is practical.
However, the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team (JTT), which consists of representatives from SANParks, CapeNature and the City, said it had held discussions over the Cape Peninsula Baboon Strategic Management Plan with communities in June, amid financial constraints.
JTT reported back to communities regarding a transitioning period when the rangers' contracts come to an end on December 31.
The task team indicated that solutions were examined and supply-chain procedures were started.
According to a reliable source, unless a quick fix is discovered, the great majority of rangers will lose their employment on December 1.
According to the source, NCC’s contract with the City expires on December 31, but the purchase order is valid until the end of November.
An estimated 400 people, 82 employees and their dependants face losing an income.
The source said the City has not communicated with NCC about potential short-term or interim solutions, nor has it involved NCC in similar talks.
“From the information provided to us by the City’s representatives, we need to assume that they won’t be required, and as such we are compelled to take the necessary Section 189 retrenchment in accordance with the Labour Relations Act,” the source explained.
Since then, a process of mass retrenchments has been started, and all employees of the Urban Baboon Programme (UBP) have received notices.
The JTT said it is a matter between the employer, NCC, and its employees.
Some of the rangers are in their forties and are too old to be hired again in the mining or construction industries, according to Lynda Silk, chairperson of Cape Peninsula Civil Conservation (CPCC).
“We know many are already supporting six or seven other people on meagre wages. If we lose these walking libraries of knowledge, they cannot be regained.
“Those who have had more years in service as baboon rangers may find themselves less employable due to age,” she explained.
“We have seen in practice that some of the rangers who have been in service more years have a fine knowledge of each member of the baboon troop and their relationships to each other.”
Silk said fences without rangers are fanciful in failing to take into account that there is no large tract of uninterrupted reserve on the other side of a fence, but roads, farms and suburbs intersecting the wild spaces.
“Each ranger has proven to be utterly reliable in showing up day after day for long hours of work, working consistently through long, even 14-hour days from before sunrise to after sunset.”
Lorraine Holloway of Baboons of the South added that ranger services are of the utmost importance to prevent baboons from coming into town.
“Rangers have to be in place until the JTT implements their strategic baboon management plan. It has to be a transitional plan that includes rangers,” Holloway said.
Sixty-one baboons have been killed between June 2023 and June 2024 as a result of gunshot wounds, dog attacks, and vehicle-related incidents.
Residents of Kommetjie, enraged by the baboon attacks, have also already banded together and demanded an end to the problem.
Meanwhile, NCC expressed gratitude to the management team and field rangers a week ago for their four years of hard work.
NCC said that while it will make every effort to place as many employees as possible in other programmes, it will not be able to meet everyone’s need for work.
Organisations dedicated to protecting baboons are now eagerly awaiting word from the JTT regarding their management starting at the end of November, particularly whether baboon rangers will be valued and included in plans.
byron.lukas@inl.co.za