Pringle Bay, situated an hour and a half from Cape Town in the Western Cape of Southern Africa, is not the peaceful seaside village it once was.
Three residents who are openly advocating for a harmonious co-existence between the humans who live in the village and the Chacma baboons, who have lived in this area for centuries, have become the victims of acts of aggressive vandalism.
There have been four separate acts of violence. Overstrand Municipality, Law Enforcement and the South African Police Services have yet to publicly denounce these criminal acts and have failed to find the perpetrators.
The public prosecutor at the Caledon Magistrates Court has dismissed two of the cases due to a lack of evidence provided by SAPS.
The first incident occurred on 30 June 2023, when a volunteer of the Kogelberg Villages Environmental Trust (KVET), found three of her vehicle’s tyres slashed while filming baboon management activities on a public beach in Pringle Bay.
In a far more personal attack, on 31 October 2024, all four tyres of her vehicle were slashed on her own property.
Despite installing state of the art security, the perpetrator(s) threw paint all over the same volunteer’s vehicle causing extensive damage to the paintwork on Sunday 8th December 2024.
On the same night, two more incidents of violence were carried out involving the slashing of tyres of residents who have expressed their dissatisfaction to the current aggressive Overstrand Municipality Adaptive Baboon Management Plan.
There is also a campaign on social media which promotes violence towards baboons and towards KVET, the same people also post misinformation about the baboons and the history of baboon management in Pringle Bay.
Coastal Rewilding a non-profit organisation based in Pringle Bay, has publicly condemned the acts of vandalism, stating that these acts represent not only personal attacks but also assaults on environmental stewardship and community harmony.
“Coastal Rewilding stands in solidarity with KVET and the affected residents, urging the community to reject violence and intimidation.”
Costal Rewilding has called for open dialogue and collaboration on wildlife management and urge local authorities to protect those committed to conservation.
It is disappointing that no public statements have been released by the Overstrand Municipality, the South African Police Services, the Pringle Bay Ratepayers Association or Neighbourhood Watch, though representatives of the latter two organisations have visited the victims.
The EMS Foundation, a South African NGO, has appointed a forensic investigator and a prominent criminal attorney to assist SAPS, because of the escalating violence towards residents and because four baboons have been killed by residents in Pringle Bay this year.
The Environmental Department of the Overstrand Municipality believes that their Adaptive Baboon Management Plan is a roaring success. But how can this possibly be rated a success when such criminality and violence exists in the town and four baboons killed by residents?