Baboon-proof bins coming to these Cape Peninsula areas

Cape Town is stepping up its battle against notorious bin-raiding baboons, with thousands of lockable bins being rolled out across high-risk communities.

The Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team – made up of SANParks, CapeNature and the City of Cape Town – announced the latest measures on 3 September.

According to Cape Nature, the first 2 200 of 6 000 lockable, baboon-proof bins will be delivered to neighbourhoods recording high levels of baboon activity.

These Cape Town areas are first in line

The initial rollout will target:

• Plateau Road
• Castle Rock
• Heron Park
• Murdoch Valley South
• De Oude Weg
• Da Gama
• Capri
• Welcome Glen
• Scarborough
• Tokai East
• Fir Grove

Residents in these priority areas will receive a new lockable bin in exchange for their existing bin.

Households, or an authorised representative, will need to sign for the replacement bin when it is delivered and provide their street number for identification.

A new fence is also coming

The bins are only one part of the strategy.

The task team says work is also on track to begin on a new northern boundary fence stretching from Zwaanswyk to Constantia Nek.

Construction is expected to get under way later this month, subject to the necessary environmental and administrative approvals.

The fence is designed to keep approximately 250 baboons within their mountain habitat and away from neighbouring urban and farming areas.

The City of Cape Town has committed a once-off R10 million towards construction of the barrier.

Can the new measures keep baboons out of Cape Town homes?

The latest rollout represents a major push to reduce human-baboon conflict across the Cape Peninsula.

The lockable bins are intended to remove one of the biggest attractions for urban baboons – easy access to household food waste.

Combined with the planned northern fence, authorities hope the measures will help keep baboons in their natural habitat while reducing the increasingly difficult encounters between residents and wildlife.

For affected communities, the big question now is whether the 6 000 new bins and R10 million fence can finally make a meaningful difference.

If you live in the Cape Peninsula, do you have trouble with bin-raiding baboons?