3 years ago
2
ARTICLE AD BOX
Baboon monitors, Bonita Francklin (left) with Gerry Higgs (right) displaying the application for a protection order, standing at the driveway of Margot Winer, who has applied for the protection order. Photo: Tred Magill
- It's suspected a chacma baboon was shot in one of Cape Town's upmarket suburbs.
- Residents and activists in Constantia have been at odds over the management of baboons which roam the area.
- One of the residents has sought a protection order against an activist who monitors baboons in the southern suburbs.
Tensions have escalated in the leafy Constantia suburb of Cape Town after another chacma baboon was shot in the area.
The baboon was the second animal to be shot in Constantia in the last seven months.
Following the latest incident, a resident applied for a protection order against one of the organisers of baboon monitors, who - the resident alleges - accused her of shooting the baboon last month.
In an affidavit supporting her application for the protection order, Margot Winer alleged that Gerry Higgs - an activist and baboon monitor - accused her of killing the baboon. She also claimed Higgs threatened her, her family and her employees.
"Gerry Higgs, who has no relationship to me, approached me as I returned home from a medical appointment and crossed into my property in a threatening manner. She began photographing me and my vehicle while shouting threats that she would post on social media that 'You killed a baboon with a gun', 'You shot and killed a baboon', 'You know what's going to happen to you when I post your identity and address on social media'," Winer wrote.
Higgs, who was served with the application in terms of the Protection from Harassment Act by police at her Tokai home, denies the allegations.
"It's a lot of nonsense. I have never met the woman nor ever spoken to her," said Higgs, an organiser of the Tokai Baboon Action Group.
READ | SPCA opens criminal case after Constantia baboon shot dead
Higgs must appear in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court on Wednesday, 19 April to show cause as to why the court should not issue a final protection order against her.
The young adult female baboon - affectionately called 'Maggie' - was shot at about 10:00 last Wednesday.
The incident follows the shooting of an adult female in Monterey Drive, Constantia in September last year.
Baboon monitor Donovan Linnet said he was on Rhodes Drive when he heard about five shots from one of the three luxurious properties above the road.
He also claims to have seen a man with what looked like a rifle behind the gate of Winer's property about 25 minutes earlier.
Linnet said:
I approached the gate of number 19 to tell them the baboons are coming, and I saw a man carrying a gun. When he saw me, he hid the gun behind his back, but I could see the end of the gun sticking out from behind his back. As he turned around, he threw the gun into the garden on his left.
Winer denies involvement in the shooting, saying, "We do not have any firearms. We did not shoot any baboons".
However, she admitted to having a paintball gun and claimed, "when they climb our wall, we walk the area carrying a paintball gun... This is obviously never used on the baboons; the noise is sufficient."
The injured baboon was paralysed by the shooting and retrieved by the Cape of Good Hope Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).
The property owner denied having any firearms or shooting the baboon.
The SPCA's Belinda Abraham said an "x-ray revealed a large bullet-like projectile lodged between her shoulder blades that we assume caused severe nerve damage on its trajectory past her spinal cord, this likely resulting in the total paralysis of her hind section".
She said the projectile would be extracted and "form part of [the] evidence".
Abrahams said the SPCA was "investigating further".
READ | Animal rights group offers R8 000 reward in search of person who shot, killed baboon in Constantia
Paul Baise, who lives close to where the baboon was found, is on record threatening to shoot baboons.
"Cull them or move them ... If I see them again, I will shoot them", Baise is reported to have said in a virtual meeting organised by Ward Councillor Liz Brunette in December last year.
Baise declined to take News24's calls, but in response to questions via Whatsapp, he claimed "No shots were fired on Wednesday".
He declined to confirm or deny whether he owned a firearm.
In April last year, the City removed the baboon monitors stationed with the Constantia 2 troop. It also announced it would terminate the multi-million rand Urban Baboon Management programme in June.
The announcement was met with outrage from Constantia residents. The Constantia Residents and Ratepayers Association said the metro had left the baboons "to run amok".
Bonita Francklin, Samantha Hodgson and Higgs then contributed and raised funds to employ baboon monitors for the Constantia 2 troop.
The Baboon Matters lobby group appointed additional monitors to patrol the area and keep the baboons out of the residential area.
Commenting on the Constantia incident, Cape Peninsula Civil Conservation chairperson Lynda Silks said "the shooting, then [the] subsequent request for protection order demonstrates the unworkable chaos that results when people are forced to take baboon management into their own hands".
"It is unacceptable that the City terminates the programme without a clear, seamless transition into a more workable plan," said Silks.
English (US)