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- The Western Cape suburb of Kommetjie has been the scene of a fight involving residents, baboons and a company hired to prevent animals from damaging the property.
- Several members of the community are concerned about the methods Human and Wildlife Solutions uses to manage the baboon troop.
- The city of Cape Town says the abundance of food in Kommetjie is what attracted the baboons to town..
As baboons and rangers engage in a “cops and robbers” game through the streets of Kommetjie on the Cape Peninsula, residents are fed up with the damage baboons and rangers have caused and wonder what value they get from the city. . of Cape Town’s 14 million rand contract with Human and Wildlife Solutions (HWS) to manage the Cape Peninsula baboon troops.
Kommetjie residents were shocked in January this year when the troop suddenly reappeared in the rustic seaside town, after being absent for years.
According to locals, the troop had been restrained over Ocean View by HWS rangers, until rangers were mugged and stripped of cell phones, wallets, paintball guns and two-way radios.
“They don’t expel them, they take them here,” an enraged Greig Russell yelled as three baboons bounced off what was left of the roof of his greenhouse. Russell claims to have sustained some R500,000 damage to the roof of his large greenhouse, which the mandrels destroyed.
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An HWS ranger confirmed that the troop had been relocated and the City’s Biodiversity Management Manager Julia Wood also confirmed that “the movement of this troop was necessary due to safety concerns of HWS personnel and the baboons that handle “.
District Councilor Simon Liell-Cock said this was “a joint decision made by the city and the service provider. The situation in Ocean View deteriorated rapidly and there was no time to warn the residents of Kommetjie.”
Wood explained that “Slangkop has proven to be a more difficult terrain to handle baboons due to the lack of natural water sources and a long ridge overlooking Kommetjie. The lack of water and the abundance of food resources in Kommetjie attracted the baboons to the city” .
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Now residents sit with the problem: baboons and rangers damage their property, while rangers chase baboons from street to street as “policemen and robbers.”
Based on anecdotal evidence, it appears that rangers (or their methods) have more flaws than baboons.
In May, Andrée Dehning, 80, made it to the top of the steps leading up to her front door only to have a paintball smash the frosted glass window in front of her, leaving broken glass at her feet. Dehning saw the ranger invaded in the narrow alley next to his house. She was not injured, but her window remains broken and she has received no response from HWS.
The City did not comment on the incident, but Wood confirmed that “the service provider cannot operate on private property. If there is damage to the property, a resident can file a claim against the City. Residents can send their concerns to their CARBS. (Representatives appointed by the councilor for the baboon suburbs) representative who is passed to the councilor and the baboon management. “
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Toni Murray, general manager of the Espresso.kom garden restaurant, described how his customers were affected by the indiscriminate shooting of paintballs: “We had a customer who was hit in the leg by a paintball in the garden area. Cars. parked on the street outside have also been beaten. I did not file a formal complaint, but told the park rangers to stay away. “
“We don’t want to complain to HWS because we love baboons. They just need to be handled correctly and we fear what HWS might do to them. We want to get rid of HWS and we would prefer Jenni Trethowan, who did a great job many years ago.”
In a local WhatsApp group, a resident complained: “We were wondering about the HWS shooting at our yards. Surely they don’t have permission to shoot without even knowing what’s in the yard? My husband has almost been shot twice because they only shoot wildly. in the backyard “.
“I just got out of the car and I see the windshield is full of paintballs, HWS must go,” wrote another.
On the beach, Maggie Joubert said “we get the impression that they are chasing the baboons into town without any plan. It’s like they are trying to make the problem worse, so that the town can euthanize the baboons.”
Another resident, Tim de Wet, joined the conversation to say that it would be better if they stayed in the mountains, but he didn’t think the rangers would be able to keep them there. Along with Russell, Bridget Dallas complained that the City “did not prepare the community for the return of the baboons.”
The City says that “there are currently no baboon-proof household trash containers available in the City and they have instituted a process to rectify this.”
Six blocks away, a couple of residents of De Villiers Street said, “We are the gatvol of the baboons and the gatvol of the rangers.” They suffered R30,000 damage to their roof when two alpha male baboons fought on their roof.
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“The rangers don’t seem to have any plans. Instead of letting the baboons move, the rangers are cornering them. When the baboons are scared, they do more damage in 20 minutes than ever in 20 years. When Jenni Trethowan of Baboon Matters was managing the troop, we had a lot less problems. “
Baboon Matters led the troop for a few years, until the guidelines became detrimental to baboons.
Next door Richard and Bernice Anderson say they love baboons, “but now we have to pack everything up and lock it; we are prisoners in our own house. We have been here for 40 years and we have never had this problem. Baboons they are chased from one path to another, ”says Anderson.
“They don’t know where to go, it’s so cruel.”
The City measures HWS performance “based on a 90% effectiveness in keeping baboons out of affected suburbs.” According to additional documentation provided by the city, Slangkop’s troop was out of town for 75.5% in April and 72.9% in June.
The troops were in town 23 times in May.
