EMS FOUNDATION RIGHT OF REPLY “BABOONS WREAK HAVOC”

Right of Reply to Village News article, Baboons Wreak Havoc by Sarah Taylor, published on 28^th March 2025

HERMANUS RESIDENTS BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR – OVERSTRAND MUNICIPALITY ADAPTIVE BABOON MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME 

Not all residents living in Pringle Bay will agree with Dean O Neill’s sweeping statement published in the Village News on the 28^th March 2025, that the Pringle Bay’s Adaptive Baboon Management Programme approach, the brainchild of the OM Environmental Department, has improved the lives for the majority of residents living in Pringle Bay. 

Most of the residents in Pringle Bay are in fact not enamoured with having a large group of employees of this OM Programme, whose numbers can range from 6 to 14, walking around the village harassing the small group of surviving Chacma baboons and disturbing the peace and quiet of what once was, a peaceful seaside village.   The cacophony of discordant loud noise which follows in their wake, includes vuvuzelas, barking dogs, shouting, swearing, and blaring music.  

The Municipal baboon programme uses unworkable and unjustifiable negative reinforcement and aggressive harassment methodologies, chasing the baboons with bear bangers, paintball guns, gel blasters, strobe lights etc., even while the baboons attempt to forage naturally on what little natural food is left for them in between the sprawl of irresponsible town planning and urban development in Pringle Bay.   There is no evidence that that the OM baboon management programme ensures that that its staff have the appropriate skills, compassion or passion for protecting wildlife or ensuring harmonious coexistence with wildlife.  This could be because there is totally inadequate or no training in mitigating human baboon conflict in a humane and cohesive way that works for both wild animals and humans, or in a way that understands baboon behaviour.

From numerous witness accounts and recorded videos in Pringle Bay, the current OM baboon programme appears to ignore the privacy of residents or heed CapeNature’s signage for the protection of the delicate environment. In the context of the Expanded Public Works Programme a common issue is that it is designed as a short-term endeavour, but many participants become reliant on it due to high unemployment.  There is no opportunity ladder in baboon monitoring, no job security and the wages earned through the EPWP are not sufficient to live on long-term.  

These negative reinforcement methods are creating social discord and constructing baboon behaviour which ultimately negatively affects residents. The result is that the baboons are stressed, they are desperate for food, they hide between homes and invade homes to get away from the methods that are causing them pain and suffering.  

Besides attempting to chase the baboons into areas surrounding Pringle Bay which offer totally inadequate water or natural food sources for the baboons, the OM’s management approach includes night assaults.  A series of chasing, bangers, shooting paintballs, shouting and very powerful lights, designed to disturb the baboons at their habitual sleep sites, are all enacted and have been caught on camera.  In their desperate attempt to escape from being frightened out of the natural sleep sites, baboons rush into the village, scamper noisily up onto residents’ rooftops where they cling to safety until morning. 

In just a few weeks, according to the content of the article, Voelklip residents have already noted that Overstrand Municipal appointed Expanded Public Works Programme baboon monitors are inexperienced and untrained. 

The very recent autopsy of the female baboon that was shot and killed in Voelklip indicates that she had been shot numerous times.  The injuries suggest that she was probably shot while she was pregnant.  Female baboons typically have a six-month gestation period. This means that she was likely shot before the withdrawal of Human Wildlife Solutions who were contracted by the Overstrand Municipality to manage baboons for the last few years. The autopsy brings into question the narrative of the article which states that HWS was in control and that their baboon management techniques were effective.  

The female baboon was killed while carrying her infant.  Her death confirms that there is a culture of violence and cruelty in Voelklip that urgently needs to be addressed. These kinds of people have absolutely no regard to for South African law and must be fully prosecuted.  

OM’s style has been notoriously untransparent and unconsultative. They must now urgently work with local civil society NGOs and NPC’s – who have the solution – to craft a humane baboon management programme, one that ensures both human and baboon wellbeing.  

Michele Pickover Executive Director of the EMS Foundation and Ward 3 Resident

Image: ©KVET 2025

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