PRINGLE BAY - The Together4Change organisation and their “Alliance Partners” have written to the Overstrand Municipality’s Environmental Manager, Liezl de Villiers to say they will not stand by “as aggression and cruelty is inflicted upon our baboons, whether by the trigger of a criminal living among us or by the trigger-happy fingers of HWS" (Human Wildlife Solutions). Together4Change Chairman, Murray McGregor says in a letter to De Villiers: “It is also our view that HWS’ tactics have normalised aggression, cruelty and firearm use in our communities. If decisive steps are not taken immediately to address these concerns we are very concerned that future incidents such as the despicable killing of Brutus are more rather than less likely to occur. Enough is enough.” “We, the public, are the custodians of the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve and its denizens and we consider it our civic and ethical duty to proactively reduce the likelihood of further harm to our baboons. We and our alliance partners now feel we are left with no option but to engage in the following activities: • Slowing traffic where baboons are on a road or about to traverse a road; • Physically alerting residents to baboon presence; • Proactively intervening to mitigate physical house entries where owners or residents have given T4C or its alliance partners permission to access their properties; • Proactively filming and documenting HWS transgressing the moratorium or members of the public engaging in threatening or illegal activity. The above activities may be expanded. “We will not interfere with HWS carrying out their contractual duty to keep baboons out of the urban area. However, we will also not be cowed by any aggression or intimidation HWS chooses to direct towards the public as we carry out our civic duties,” Together4Change says in their letter.
