“What will happen after 30 June?”
Of the many concerns raised at the stakeholder workshop, hosted by the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team (JTT), last week, this was certainly the most burning one.
On Friday 3 March, JTT (consisting of SANParks, the City of Cape Town and CapeNature) invited residents, stakeholders, and interested and affected parties to attend and contribute to refining the draft Baboon Strategic Management Plan (BSMP) for the sustainable management of the Chacma Baboon population in the Cape Peninsula.
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Presenting a breakdown of the plan and its seven outcomes, Keith Wiseman, Manager, Environmental Management, Spatial Planning & Environment (EMS), also shared timeframes for the way forward.
With the deadline for public comment on the draft set for Friday 31 March, JTT has committed to collating and considering these comments by Sunday 30 April. It is expected that the BSMP will be amended and finalised by Wednesday 31 May followed by additional engagements with communities and NPOs by Friday 30 June. And only then, if all goes to plan, will the Memorandum of Understanding between the three state authorities to govern baboon management kick in, giving JTT the legal authority to, for example, request tenders for a baboon management company, should that even be on the cards.
This is also the exact date when the City of Cape Town’s contract with NCC Environmental Services, the managers of the City’s Urban Baboon Programme ends – 30 June.
Peter Willis, Facilitator: Simons Town Civic Association’s Baboon Strategy Dialogue, believes, given that it will take many months, perhaps even a year or two, to implement what is outlined in the BSMP, an extension of NCC’s contract, for at least a year, is needed.
With the floor opened to questions on Friday, Willis asked what the plan for the transition period was.
“The NCC still don’t know whether they have a contract after the 30th of June, and if they don’t have a contract, and a meaningful contract, one that will actually do the job from 1 July, all of this is absolutely wasted here,” said Willis.
Lizel Steenkamp, Portfolio Lead: Urban Mobility; Spatial Planning and Environment; Corporate Services, City of Cape Town, said the City was working hard to make sure that there was something to help with that transition period.
“We are busy with a legal process. We are also busy with supply chain management processes. We have to follow due process. If we want to extend a three-year contract, we have to go back, we may have to ask for public comment because part of extending the contract, we have to go back to the public and ask them what they think of the proposal.
“But even before we get there, we have to get legal approval from the City that we can actually go ahead and do that. I can’t say to you, yes, it will be extended, we are working at it and we are committed to making it work,” said Steenkamp.
Taking issue with the City’s seemingly “unilateral decision” in April last year to stop the baboon management programme Nicky Schmidt, founder of Parkscape, asked whether there had been public participation, or whether due process had been followed when the City reached that conclusion.
“Given that there is a 2015 High Court judgment that places responsibility on the City,” Schmidt added.
The question of legality and responsibility for baboon management between the City, SANParks and CapeNature, has been a hot potato since the early 90s. When the City of Cape Town took the matter to the High Court for a final legal ruling, the judge was persuaded by arguments detailing a “cooperative management agreement” between the authorities, and in 2015 the judgment left the City with the financial burden.
Answering Schmidt’s question, Steenkamp said that there had been no public participation.
“Our legal opinion said that this mandate that the City is funding should be funded by three spheres of government. This is why we are here today because when that legal opinion was acquired, we looked at our contract and we said, okay, we have this three-year contract, we are going to let it run right to the end and by that time we have to make sure that all the stakeholders (participate), so that we can all fund, contribute, whether it is resources, whether it is through funding, whatever way it is. That it is not the City alone.”
When People’s Post spoke to Jenny Trethowan, founder of Baboon Matters, during the tea break, she said everybody she knew was concerned about the fact that the clock was ticking down so quickly.
“And we don’t have anything on the table. One has to ask the question, why did you end something; you knew that the contract would come to an end in June. Instead of having a transition phase in place first, you just allowed it to just end – and now you can sit here, four months before the project is actually finished and say, oops, this is a problem.”
Commenting on Friday’s workshop, Carolynne Franklin, councillor for Ward 71, said the intergovernmental interaction was a decade too late.
“But we are where we are and we are making progress. This is the first time this has ever happened, even if everyone is being brought kicking and screaming to the table, at least they are talking to one another.”
Franklin also shared that as far as the transition period was concerned, there was light at the end of tunnel.
“I am looking, with numerous other stakeholders and ward councillors, at a parallel process that will pick up the slack during the transitional time. I can’t share anything else right now because it is in the making, but it is something we started a few months ago when we saw that the task team was quite hamstrung by regulatory systems.”
