Cape Town to control baboons

[Toko]

More protests against baboon management plans

[Lisbeth]

I might be wrong, but I have not read about anybody wanting to kill the baboons Aren't they exaggerating a bit? If you cannot even leave the windows open and always have to be on the outlook for baboons, life will get rather stressing

[Richprins]

It's Cape people, Lis!

Here we just shoot them/us/it....

[nan]

Cape people

Ah ! those Baboons

[Toko]

Call for talks on baboon problem

Call for talks on baboon problem

January 22 2013 at 11:05am
By John Yeld

Cape Town - Strong differences of opinion over the management of the Peninsula’s baboon troops – particularly the killing of raiding male baboons – should be discussed and resolved in a formal conciliation process, says the conservation group Baboon Matters Trust.

The trust wants Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa to appoint a facilitator to run a conciliation process under the National Environmental Management Act. If she declines to do so, the trust will go to the high court.

But it needs one of the key parties, SA National Parks, the parent body of the Table Mountain National Park where most of the baboons occur, to first agree to extending the period in which it can go to court, before starting any conciliation.

Table Mountain National Park staff are among those who decide when a baboon is to be put down.

The trust wants an extension because of court rules that a review application must be brought within six months of any administrative action.

One of the two baboons whose killing led to the bid for conciliation was put down in the last week of August, and this means that the trust must file court papers before the end of February, unless SANParks agrees to an extension.

On Friday, the trust sent an urgent letter to SANParks’ chief executive officer David Mabunda, saying that if he did not agree to the extension, the trust would have to go straight to court.

SANParks’ head of communications Wanda Mkutshulwa confirmed that Mabunda had received the letter.

The trust launched its action after two male baboons, named Peter and Carpenter by the conservationists, were put down last year on the instruction of the Baboon Technical Team, a co-operative group of the City of Cape Town, CapeNature and SANParks which are in charge of baboon management on the Peninsula.

Before this the trust’s lawyer, Mark Nixon, had written to the team asking for a moratorium on the killing of any baboons until the trust had been given all relevant data and documents to study and comment on, said the trust’s founder Jenni Trethowan.

“The letter met with no success, and Peter and Carpenter were killed shortly thereafter,” she said.

The trust believed that SANParks had killed the baboons because of their raiding, but this had taken place on land not within the Table Mountain National Park and so the staff were not acting within their legal mandate. The trust believed the actions of the park staff were reviewable in court. - Cape Argus

[Toko]

BABOON MATTERS TRUST: Press Release - Killing of Chacma baboons

BABOON MATTERS TRUST HAVE REQUESTED SANPARKS SUPPORT ON A PROPOSED CONCILIATION OVER THE KILLING OF CHACMA BABOONS

(Released January 2013)

Today, the Baboon Matters Trust (“Baboon Matters”) which operates as a non-profit organisation for the purpose of conservation and education for baboons across South Africa,sent an urgent letter to the CEO of SANParks. The letter primarily concerns the actions of SANParks late last year in causing two Chacma baboons, known by the names Peter and Carpenter, to be killed. The letter also seeks to address this and the broader issue of SANParks management of baboons via conciliation in terms of 17(2) of the National Environmental Management Act, 107 of 1998 (“NEMA”). A copy of the letter is transmitted herewith.

By way of a brief history, prior to the killing of Peter and Carpenter, the Baboon Technical Team (comprising City of Cape Town, Cape Nature and SANParks which control and manage the Table Mountain National Park), the collective group dealing with the management of baboons in Cape Town, were urgently requested, by way of a letter from Baboon Matters’ lawyer, Mark Nixon, to halt killing baboons until such time as inter alia relevant data and documentation had been made available for scrutiny and inputs. The letter met with no success, and Peter and Carpenter were killed shortly thereafter.

Baboon Matters understands that SANParks killed the baboons for having previously raided property on land which is not within the jurisdiction of SANParks control and management and holds (as spelt out more fully in the letter) that the actions of SANParks are reviewable in Court.

In order to avoid a court application however, Baboon Matters are proposing to send a letter to the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs (“the Minister”) requesting the Minister to appoint a facilitator to call and conduct meetings of interested and affected parties with the purpose of reaching agreement to refer a disagreement over the killing of these and other baboons by SANParks to conciliation in terms of NEMA.

Unfortunately Baboon Matters will be unable to refer these issues to conciliation without first having an agreement with SANParks [in terms of section 9 of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 3of 2000 (“the PAJA”)], to extend the 180 day limit (referred to in section 7 of the PAJA) to make application to Court for the review of SANPark’s actions in killing Peter and Carpenter. The 180 days began to run late last year after the first killing.

Essentially what this means is that if SANParks does not agree to extend the time limit (which is set to expire soon), Baboon Matters will have no other option but to approach a court for review, failing which it will lose the option of review entirely with no certainty that conciliation will even take place.

Baboon Matters have sought legal advice pertaining to the on-going killing of male baboons on the Cape peninsula, and this attempt at conciliation in terms of NEMA, if successful, will go a long way at promoting inter-governmental and NGO dispute resolution outside of Court.

[Flutterby]

Posted by Beauty without Cruelty, 5 July, 2018:

PLEASE have your say to the vineyards involved. This would never had happened if Baboon Matters was still involved.

Permits have been issued and 7 baboons have been killed professional hunters hired by the vineyards.

Apparently at a meeting of the Baboon Technical Team in 2017 the issue of removing baboons from the vineyards (killing them) was discussed, and as the vineyards are privately owned they may apply for permits to remove damage causing animals.
This is appalling!
We will be standing up against this!

Posted by Beauty without Cruelty, 11 Julym 2018:

Capetonians are understandably outraged by the hunting permits given and the resulting killings of baboons in the Constantia mountains. The Baboon Action group, comprising several animal interest organisations and individuals, confirm that the law has allegedly been broken by the authorities themselves, all of whom are shifting responsibility from themselves to other departments. The UCT Baboon Research Unit, Cape Nature, BTT and SANParks are all abdicating responsibility, the CoCT seems to be caught in the middle, unable to reign in rogue elements, and the SPCA denies any knowledge of the permits.
The problem has arisen in the first instance because of decisions allegedly taken by SANParks, City of Cape Town and Cape Nature.
Goal 8 of the Buffer Zone Policy of The National Environmental Management of Protected Areas Act – NEMPAA states, in a nutshell, that animals (public assets) are held in trust by the State for the benefit of present and future generations, as part of the public estate. So even if these animals had left the Table Mountain National Park, they are protected by the state itself! Furthermore, hunting is not permitted in the Cape Peninsula –and if the DEA itself permitted the hunting, it would mean they are in breach of their own legislation. Local legislation is clear ; No baboons may be hunted in any rural or urban area within the Cape Peninsula.
Baboons are listed in CITES Appendix II and are considered to be protected wild animals in terms of Ordinance 19 of 1975.
The Baboon Action group is working the scenes to bring those responsible to book.
Beauty Without Cruelty is a member of Baboon Action

[Richprins]

Firstly, not all Capetonians are outraged.

Secondly, what solutions do the outragees suggest?

[okie]

Hmmmm..... I do not know what Beauty without Cruelty is moaning about .
There is no cruelty involved in shooting a starving animal , and in any event noting of that animal is used in manufacture of stuff to make ugly human females to look better

[Lisbeth]

Everything today is exaggerated both the protests for and the protests againts whatever the matter. Sometimes a bit more common sense would be useful.