BABOONS NEED TO BE RESPECTED, NOT FEARED, HATED, HUNTED AND PERSECUTED BY CHILDREN AND ADULTS ALIKE IN SOUTH AFRICA

PUBLIC STATEMENT

BABOONS NEED TO BE RESPECTED, NOT FEARED, HATED, HUNTED AND PERSECUTED BY CHILDREN AND ADULTS ALIKE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Wednesday 12^th February 2025

The Members of WAPFSA are deeply concerned by reports of school children violently stoning and beating a dispersing male Chacma baboon, then according to reports, binding him with metal wire and a tire, and burning him to death, while at a school in Mpumalanga Province. This barbaric and inhumane act was captured on camera and shared on social media. 

WAPFSA acknowledges the fact that South Africa is a violent country. According to the United National Office for Drugs and Crime, the South African murder rate for 2023 and 2024 of 45 per 100 000 is the second highest for countries that publish crime data.

Crime researchers use murder rate per 100 000 as a crude measure of the general level of violent interpersonal crime globally.

Witnessing such violence predicts and increase’s a child’s engagement in maladaptive behaviours, including the perpetration of violence towards humans and animals. 

The  United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child  confirms that the damage violence  can cause for those children who witness it, has long been flagged by psychologists.  

Violence against animals has been documented by extensive scientific research and has been linked to other forms of violence including direct and indirect domestic and gender-based violence, violence in the workplace and against children,  

This particular act of violence towards a sentient and intelligent Chacma baboon needs to be thoroughly investigated and the consequences must be addressed without delay.  Baboons are victims of inexplicable hatred in South Africa and are widely considered as vermin despite their complex social structure and intelligence.  

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Teaching Children that it is an Acceptable Practice to Shoot Baboons 

Tens of millions of rands of taxpayers’ money has been spent on attempting to manage baboons in the Cape Peninsula and the Overstrand over the past two decades using  protocols which, according the available data, and expert and public opinion, ignore baboon sentience and well-being and have not been successful for baboons or for humans. 

For example, the Cape Peninsula Baboon-Strategic-Management-Plan sanctions the use of paintball markers against the 16 indigenous baboon troops historically present on the Peninsula as a management technique. Perhaps, encouraged by this violent management strategy, some residents have taken up arms such as pellet guns, and other lethal means, resulting in the death of numerous baboons this year.

Intensive research of these management practices in the Western Cape, has highlighted the fact that the protocols established to manage baboons were instituted by a baboon management company and adopted without a rigorous public participation process by the City of Cape Town Municipality, Cape Nature, SANParks and the Overstrand Municipality.  These protocols must be recast.  Baboon management, at the very least, requires a flexible, dynamic and compassionate approach.

In Pringle Bay in the Western Cape, the Overstrand Municipality has armed entire teams of individuals, employed via the extended Public Works Programme, with paint ball markers and other weapons to shoot the baboons out of the village. This violent approach ignores the fact that the Chacma baboon depends upon foraging areas within the village in order to survive. 

There is evidence that this violent strategy in Pringle Bay has encouraged residents, including young adults to take up arms and to do the same with dire consequences for the welfare and wellbeing of the Chacma baboons. 

Stop the Cycle of Anger and Violence

The witnessing violence may lead to the perpetration of further violence, will certainly involve desensitization, and decrease empathy. At the very least witnessing violence will result in maladaptive coping mechanisms and other learned behaviours. 

The very public and barbaric killing of the Chacma baboon, fondly named Raygun by everyone who followed his journey through Pretoria, is an important alarm signal to bring in much needed change in our violent society.  If we do not act now, and set an example, what hope is there for future generations of South Africans?

WAPFSA urges government institutions to reform outdated baboon management policies. Civil society and the public must recognise that we have reached a breaking point and take a firm stand against the persecution of baboons and the brutality they endure.

Image: Baboon shot in the face with a paintball marker in Pringle Bay

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