Excerpt: For 25 years the DA-led Western Cape has ignored its own Constitution by refusing to appoint the Commissioner for the Environment — a watchdog meant to protect this province’s residents from unlawful and unaccountable environmental decisions.
The baboon crisis has now exposed this failure. While the CPBMJTT operates without independence or legal authority, the constitutional oversight body has never been activated.
LFN and Monkey Valley have filed a formal constitutional complaint to revive this long-buried office. If authorities push ahead with irreversible actions, we will seek an urgent interdict to force lawful oversight at last.
This fight is no longer only about baboons.
It is about restoring the constitutional safeguard that the DA denied the Western Cape for a generation.
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Most supporters know that LFN never backs down from a fight when the Constitution is being ignored. And now, after months of struggling with the baboon crisis alongside Monkey Valley and the people of the Cape Peninsula, we have uncovered one of the most shocking acts of quiet constitutional sabotage in the Western Cape’s history.
And it has been hiding in plain sight for 25 years.
Deep inside the Constitution of the Western Cape sits an institution that no resident has ever been allowed to benefit from:
The Commissioner for the Environment.
An independent constitutional watchdog created in 1997 to:
- act without fear or favour,
- investigate environmental disputes,
- hold authorities accountable,
- ensure lawful public participation, and
- protect communities when government decisions impact the environment.
Yet the Western Cape Government — under the Democratic Alliance for most of its existence — has never appointed this Commissioner.
Not once.
Not ever.
Most people in the Western Cape have never even heard of the Commissioner for the Environment — and for good reason. No resident has ever benefited from this watchdog, because the DA-led Western Cape Government has simply never appointed one. The office has existed on paper since 1997, but it has been deliberately kept empty, silent, and unusable for over 25 years.
Instead of complying with their own Constitution, the DA has:
- conveniently left the Commissioner’s chair empty since 1997,
- aggressively tried to amend the Constitution to delete the office entirely,
- insisted the office is “unnecessary” — while quietly building a parallel, politically-managed structure (the CPBMJTT),
- and kept this constitutional failure far away from public awareness.
But the baboon crisis has finally dragged this silent failure into the light.
The CPBMJTT: A Constitutional Workaround Designed to Avoid Oversight
The Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team (CPBMJTT) is a multi-agency forum consisting of:
- the City of Cape Town,
- CapeNature (Western Cape conservation authority), and
- SANParks (National parks authority).
The CPBMJTT presents itself as a “collaborative decision-making team,” but:
- it is not established by statute,
- it has no legal decision-making power,
- it is not independently accountable, and
- it operates entirely outside the constitutional oversight structures intended for environmental disputes.
In truth, it functions as a politically convenient substitute for the Commissioner for the Environment — the very office the DA refused to implement.
Instead of a constitutionally mandated watchdog, residents and businesses get:
- an internal committee,
- controlled and funded by the same authorities making the decisions,
- insulated from public scrutiny,
- capable of advancing politically pre-determined outcomes.
And because there is no Commissioner, the CPBMJTT fills that vacuum by design, not by law.
The Baboon Action Plan: How Irreversible Decisions Exposed Irresponsible Governance
The CPBMJTT’s Baboon Action Plan proposes:
- removing entire baboon troops from their territories,
- relocating troops to off-site facilities or sanctuaries,
- euthanising individuals labelled “problem animals”,
- and restructuring troop ranges across the Peninsula.
These are irreversible decisions.
Yet the process behind them has been marked by:
- lack of lawful administrative decision-making by each competent authority,
- lack of meaningful public involvement,
- lack of transparent scientific justification,
- absence of independent assessment, and
- the complete non-existence of the constitutionally intended oversight office.
It is in this vacuum that unlawful, irrational, or politically motivated decisions thrive.
And that is precisely why the Commissioner for the Environment was created — to stop this from happening.
LFN and Monkey Valley Have Taken the Step the Province Feared Most
Liberty Fighters Network and our members at Monkey Valley have now formally lodged a constitutional complaint with the Office of the Commissioner for the Environment.
Even though the Western Cape Government has never appointed a Commissioner, the office exists in law.
Section 71 is binding.
Section 72 is binding.
Section 237 of the national Constitution is binding.
This complaint forces the Western Cape Government into a choice it has avoided for decades:
Either:
- Appoint the Commissioner as the Constitution requires; or
- Admit openly — in public and in court — that the Province has ignored its own Constitution for 25 years to avoid independent scrutiny.
Their parallel structure, the CPBMJTT, shows that:
- funding is not the obstacle,
- capacity is not the obstacle,
- a functioning environmental oversight process is not the obstacle.
The only obstacle was the Commissioner’s independence.
Why This Battle Matters Far Beyond the Baboons
If LFN succeeds in compelling the appointment of the Commissioner, the impact would be enormous:
- Residents would have an independent office to investigate environmental disputes.
- The Province would no longer be able to push through environmental decisions without proper oversight.
- Controversial developments, conservation failures, water crises, and biodiversity issues would face constitutional scrutiny.
- The CPBMJTT and similar structures would no longer be able to operate as unchecked, in-house decision-makers.
- Environmental transparency and public participation would finally be restored.
The baboon issue is the spark.
But the fire is much bigger.
This fight is about restoring the constitutional balance in the Western Cape — and ending a 25-year pattern of selective constitutionalism.
What Happens Next
LFN has already notified the authorities that:
- We welcome dialogue.
- Dialogue must occur within the framework of constitutional oversight.
- No irreversible actions may take place while the complaint is pending.
- Should any authority proceed unlawfully, LFN will immediately seek an urgent interdict in the High Court.
And the High Court will then confront the question the DA-led Government has never wanted to hear aloud:
“Why have you refused to appoint the Environmental Commissioner required by your own Constitution?”
There is no legally sustainable answer.
And that is exactly why this case may change the environmental governance of the Western Cape forever.
The Baboon Fight Is Now a Constitutional Fight
LFN stands with Monkey Valley, with affected residents, with conservation professionals, and with every person who believes that government must obey its own Constitution.
The Commissioner’s Office was meant to serve the people.
Instead, it was buried.
Now the public — through LFN’s action — is uncovering it again.
If we win this fight, we won’t just protect the baboons of the Peninsula.
We will restore a constitutional safeguard that the people of the Western Cape were denied for 25 years.
And that will be a victory far larger than any one troop of baboons.
It will be a victory for environmental justice, constitutional accountability, and the power of ordinary people refusing to be ignored.
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