Cape Town - Animal rights activists have raised concern with the Joint Task Team’s Draft Strategic Management Plan (DSMP) that deals with the welfare of baboons and how to keep them out of residential areas.
This comes as the City’s contract with Nature Conservation Consultants (NCC) to keep baboon troops out of residential areas on the urban edges of Table Mountain National Park ends in June.
The draft plan was released for public comment last month.
It was drafted by SANParks, CapeNature and the City of Cape Town.
According to baboon activists group Baboon Matters, the participants of a recent meeting expressed concern about the lack of substance in the action plan put forward by the task team.
They expressed concern over the increased time baboons were spending in urban areas, as well as the elevated levels of tension between baboons and humans.
“It seems that more and more residents are now ‘taking matters into their own hands’, and the recent tragic deaths of two adult male baboons demonstrated just how many people shoot at baboons. Nomahlehle (from the Waterfall troop) had 25 pellets in his body, while Van Damme (Smits troop) had 22,” they said.
They said the task team had nothing in place for July 1, when the NCC contract would come to an end.
According to Baboon Matters, the Cape of Good Hope SPCA had not been invited to the meeting and despite being a crucial stakeholder, did not provide any input on the plan.
The SPCA’s chief inspector, Jaco Pieterse, said they welcomed the opportunity to speak on behalf of baboons, but confirmed they were not invited to the meeting.
“We were also not given the opportunity to contribute towards the compilation of the draft management plan prior to public circulation.
“As a nominated key stakeholder our expectations for an invitation to attend the meeting or to comment on the draft management plan are reasonable and as a leading animal welfare organisation at the forefront of the fight against animal cruelty the omissions are regrettable,” he said.
The City said it was investigating how and in what capacity they could continue to ensure a transition from the current Urban Baboon Programme.
Deputy mayor and spatial planning and environment mayoral committee member Eddie Andrews said: “Extending a tender is, however, very complex. The City’s relevant open and transparent supply chain management processes must be followed in this regard, as prescribed by the Municipal Finance Management Act.
This may include public participation in respect of the proposed extension. The outcome of this process therefore cannot be pre-empted at this stage.”
Cape Times