The City’s contract with the private company that helps to keep baboons in check will wind down from the end of November, but there are plans for rangers to keep monitoring the primates until a new plan to manage them is adopted, says the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team.
In June, the task team, comprising representatives from SANParks, CapeNature, and the City of Cape Town, held discussions with residents in baboon-affected areas about a new baboon management plan that would take effect after the contract with NCC Environmental Services ends on December 31 of this year.
However there has been growing concern from residents that the plan will not be ready to roll out by the end of the year, and they started a petition for it to be extended (“Petition urges City to continue urban baboon programme,” Bulletin, July 4).
NCC, in a statement on Facebook, has noted that while its contract with the City terminates on Tuesday December 31, it has been informed that there is insufficient budget for its services beyond November 30.
In its statement on Thursday August 29, however, the task team said steps were being taken to ensure that there would still be rangers on hand during what it described as a “transitioning period”.
“Options have been reviewed and supply-chain processes are being initiated in order to enable a presence of baboon rangers in affected communities in coming months. A short-term solution will address the December period as the current urban baboon programme is winding down from the end of November 2024 onwards and an interim solution will address the transitioning period starting on 1 January 2025,” said the statement.
According to the task team, longer term options being considered include “a grant-in-aid with a non-profit organisation or the creation of a special purpose vehicle to assist with the implementation of the area-based solutions…”
The details of the longer term solution would be communicated once finalised, it said.
However, in its statement, NCC said it “has no knowledge of any interim or short-term solutions and as such we are led to assume that this short-term solution does not require the services of our field rangers”.
NCC said it had issued retrenchment notices to all urban baboon programme staff in compliance with the Labour Relations Act. However, some of the management staff might be required to assist with the close out of the programme.
“There has been no other project of this kind in the world, and as such we would also like to thank the City for providing this opportunity for NCC to service the communities by helping to mitigate conflicts between people and baboons,” the company said.
NCC said it would try to find employment for the 82 staff who were employed by the programme.
However “owing to the sheer number of staff involved, NCC will unfortunately not be able to provide enough work for everyone and significant job losses will be inevitable,” it said.
