Making a monkey out of residents

You have to admire the determination of the good burghers of the suburbs abutting the shores around Cape Town.

They’ve hit the streets, with placards, slogans and singing, to protest.

Not about poverty. Not about lockdowns. Not about a desire for a separate republic. This is about a baboon.

Known to wildlife rangers on the Peninsular by his isXhosa name, Nkatazo, which means “trouble”, this piratical primate was leading his troop (or more correctly, his “harem” of females) on regular raids on houses in the Kommetjie area.

Earlier this year, he was captured and relocated to another troop in Tokai.

But the rebellious suburbanites, who call this mammal Robin Hood Kataza, want him back and say his heartless expulsion shows how misguided Cape Town’s problem animal control policy is.

According to the city’s scientific experts, though, Kataza needs to be “rehabilitated” because he poses a threat to people.

Not so, claim the ape’s backers. Some have even allegedly been clandestinely feeding him which, the scientists say, makes it even more difficult to integrate him back into the wild.

Baboon populations have exploded in the Cape in the past two decades and conflict with humans is real and frequent.

But, it seems, the apes have also caused conflict between humans.

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