Excerpt: Liberty Fighters Network (LFN) has launched an urgent High Court application against the DA-led Western Cape Government, including Premier Alan Winde, to halt irreversible actions contemplated under the so-called Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Action Plan. At the heart of the case is not only the fate of the Cape baboons, but the Western Cape Government’s bypassing of lawful environmental oversight, its failure to appoint the constitutionally required Commissioner for the Environment, and its use of task-team structures to obscure accountability. LFN says conservation cannot be reduced to political expediency, nor can permanent wildlife interventions be forced through while constitutional obligations are ignored.
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For years, the Democratic Alliance has sold the Western Cape as its “clean-governance showcase”.
Transparency. Accountability. The rule of law.
Yet when it came to the Cape Peninsula baboons — inconvenient, visible, and politically uncomfortable — those slogans were quietly discarded.
What followed was not conservation. It was administrative shortcutting, shielded behind committees, task teams, and public-relations language, while the law was treated as an obstacle to be navigated around.
That is why Liberty Fighters Network (LFN) has now taken the Premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde, and others, to the High Court on an urgent basis.
Not to negotiate.
Not to collaborate.
Not to “find middle ground”.
But to stop irreversible actions taken without lawful authority.
LFN DOES NOT SIT AT THE DA’S TABLE — AND NEVER HAS
Let’s be clear from the outset:
LFN is not aligned with the Democratic Alliance.
LFN does not engage in cosy round-table discussions with the DA.
LFN does not trade silence for access.
LFN confronts abuse of public power — irrespective of which party commits it.
And in this case, it is the DA-led Western Cape Government that stands accused of bypassing lawful environmental governance structures to force through a predetermined outcome.
THE PROBLEM WAS NEVER “BABOONS” — IT WAS POWER
The public has been deliberately distracted with noise about “problem animals”, “conflict management”, and “public safety”.
But the real issue is far more serious.
The Final Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Action Plan (2025) contemplates actions that are permanent and irreversible — including capture, removal from natural habitat, confinement behind electrified fencing, sterilisation, and euthanasia as an express contingency.
Once such actions are taken, there is no meaningful remedy.
No later consultation fixes it.
No future apology reverses it.
No court judgment can restore a wild troop once it has been broken.
That is precisely why LFN approached the court urgently: to stop the creation of a fait accompli, where the damage is done first and legality debated years later.
THE COMMISSIONER WHO WAS NEVER APPOINTED — BY DESIGN OR NEGLECT
At the heart of this case lies a constitutional failure that the Western Cape Government would rather not talk about.
The Constitution of the Western Cape requires the appointment of a Commissioner for the Environment — an independent constitutional watchdog meant to investigate environmental complaints and hold provincial organs of state to account.
That office is vacant.
Not temporarily.
Not because of a national crisis.
But because the DA-led provincial executive, under Premier Alan Winde, simply failed to appoint one.
This failure matters.
Because when controversial conservation decisions arise — decisions involving irreversible wildlife interventions — the public is supposed to have a functional, independent oversight mechanism.
Instead, the Western Cape has none.
As a result, serious conservation incidents and complaints fall through the cracks, leaving the public with only one remaining option: the High Court.
This is not good governance.
It is governance by avoidance.
THE CPBMJTT: A SHIELD, NOT A LAWFUL DECISION-MAKER
Another uncomfortable truth exposed in LFN’s court papers is the role of the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team (CPBMJTT).
The CPBMJTT has been presented to the public as the face of baboon management — the apparent decision-maker.
But task teams do not possess inherent constitutional or statutory authority.
Public power must always be traceable:
- Who made the decision?
- Under which law?
- On what date?
- Based on which record?
- With what reasons?
Instead, the CPBMJTT has functioned as a buffer, shielding the real decision-makers — SANParks, CapeNature, and the City — behind a collective structure that blurs accountability.
LFN’s application demands the production of the full decision-making record, because lawful governance does not operate in shadows.
THIS IS CONSERVATION — NOT EXTERMINATION BY ADMINISTRATION
It is important to state the facts accurately.
The Cape chacma baboon is not currently classified as endangered. That fact is not disputed.
But conservation law does not permit the state to treat a local wild population as expendable simply because it is inconvenient.
Especially not in an ecological region already under immense pressure — a region that includes critically endangered species such as the geometric tortoise and the African penguin.
When governance becomes opaque and law is sidelined, it is never only one species that pays the price.
Today it is baboons.
Tomorrow it is something else.
Always justified after the fact.
JUDY SOLE AND MONKEY VALLEY: WHY THIS CASE EXISTS AT ALL
This court case did not originate in a government office.
It originated through activism.
Judy Sole of Monkey Valley Resort refused to remain silent while unjust actions were unfolding. She exposed what was happening, challenged the narrative, and ensured that the public could not simply be talked past.
It is precisely this kind of activism that forces accountability in a system increasingly hostile to scrutiny.
LFN became involved because the law was being bent — and in places, ignored.
THE DA’S WESTERN CAPE PROBLEM
The DA is quick to criticise national government for unlawful conduct.
But in the Western Cape, when it suited their agenda, the same shortcuts were taken:
- Oversight structures left vacant.
- Lawful authority blurred.
- Irreversible actions pushed forward despite pending complaints.
- Requests for undertakings refused.
This case exposes the reality behind the branding.
You cannot claim to govern by the Constitution while selectively ignoring it.
WHY THIS CASE MATTERS TO EVERY SOUTH AFRICAN
This is not just about baboons.
It is not just about the Western Cape.
It is not just about one political party.
It is about whether any government may bypass lawful process to get its way — and whether the courts will allow irreversible harm to be done before legality is tested.
LFN has put this dispute where it belongs: before a judge, in full public view.
Because conservation without law is not conservation.
It is power — unchecked.
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