\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
Lungelo Mkamba <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Solutions with a difference were made at a Monkey Business Workshop in Tongaat yesterday. <\/p>\n
If you are a woman and you have trouble with monkeys, dress up like a man because the animals were more afraid of men, was one suggestion. <\/p>\n
Another was that all monkeys in eThekwini residential areas should be caught and relocated to \u201cbushy\u201d and forest areas where they could feed on planted indigenous trees. <\/p>\n
The eThekwini municipality\u2019s Natural Resources department is hosting several workshops to find solutions to the \u201cmonkey problem\u201d. <\/p>\n
Department manager Vuyiswa Thabethe told attendees that there was no law on monkeys. <\/p>\n
But Tongaat resident Rampal Moonsamy stood up and said he had simply \u201chad enough of monkeys\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation has become worse and we are tired,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Moonsamy called on the city to form a \u201cmonkey action plan\u201d. <\/p>\n
According to Thabethe, the city was putting together a draft management plan for the animals and \u201cneeded public debate\u201d. <\/p>\n
She had been inundated by e-mails and letters since the first workshop at the Botanic Gardens in July. <\/p>\n
One letter from an Umkomaas resident had called for the \u201cmass killing\u201d of all monkeys. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are sick and tired of the city. We must kill the monkeys. I will continue shooting them,\u201d one read. <\/p>\n
Dhun Pillay disagreed about killing monkeys, but said they \u201cmust be moved back to their own environment\u201d. <\/p>\n
Bitten <\/p>\n
Rajamah Moodley, 77, who survived an \u201cattack\u201d, was taking her washing down in her backyard when she was bitten on the leg. <\/p>\n
Moodley had to receive five pints of blood in hospital. <\/p>\n
Monkey helpline co-ordinator Steve Smit argued that people were more in danger of being bitten by dogs than monkeys. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy is there no meeting about the dogs that chase me every day during rescues?\u201d he asked. <\/p>\n
Monkeys wanted to share living with people, he added. \u201cPeople are not educated on monkeys.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to Smit monkeys were shot with pellet guns and attacked by dogs. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey do not steal. They see food lying around and assume people are done with eating.\u201d <\/p>\n
Smit advised people not to feed monkeys, or try to touch them, run or scream during a confrontation. <\/p>\n
Others asked if the construction of the King Shaka International Airport had forced monkeys to move from the area to residential areas. <\/p>\n
Nic Liebenberg, who has worked for 15 years at a nature reserve, warned that monkeys did not like their \u201cown\u201d areas anymore. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey like and prefer human areas because there are lots of opportunities for them.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
He stressed that it would be hard to relocate a troop as there could be another troop occupying that area, which would lead to conflict. <\/p>\n
He suggested that people should have dogs, electric fencing and women should dress up as men as monkeys were less afraid of them. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Thabethe said her department would work with Smit to do a \u201cyear of the vervets\u201d initiative next year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lungelo Mkamba Solutions with a difference were made at a Monkey Business Workshop in Tongaat yesterday. If you are a woman and you have trouble with monkeys, dress up like a man because the animals were more afraid of men, was one suggestion. Another was that all monkeys in eThekwini residential areas should be caught […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-16017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}