The Ill Treatment of Kataza (SK11) is the Tipping Point for the Need to Reconfigure the Protection of Chacma Baboons and their Natural Habitat in the Western Cape of South Africa

OPEN LETTER

Office of the Premier 

Per Email: Premier.Winde@westerncape.gov.za

Dear Honourable Premier Winde,

Cape Town, with all its natural splendour, including the dramatic mountain and coastal landscapes, the world-class wineries and the spectacular beaches is a favoured destination of South Africans and travellers from all over the world. Voted as the best city in the world for seven years in a row by the London Telegraph, named the most beautiful city in the world by Buzzfeed and selected by the world’s top travel professionals to be seventh amongst the fifty of the most beautiful cities in the world. 

In July 2020 Anton Bredell, Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning announced that 72% of the municipalities in the Western Cape are in good financial health. “It’s simple.  These reports show that taxpayers money is going where it is meant to go and not to lining the pockets of friends and families of politicians or corrupt officials. Managing money well, not wasting or stealing it, is critical if you want to deliver the services needed to make the province a better place for all who live in it”. 

South Africa is the world’s third most biologically diverse country. The Cape Floristic Region is one of the Biodiversity Hotspots. The extraordinary endemism displayed by its flora, combined with a growing human population, rapid development, habitat loss, overexploitation, the introduction of alien species and the unforeseen effects of climate change, is contributing to a major conservation crisis. The rapid rate of urbanisation and development in Cape Town specifically, but also elsewhere in the Western Cape, is negatively affecting and placing extensive pressure on ecosystems, nature and wildlife.