Pretoria - Animal rights activists have called for the resignation of the Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister, Pallo Jordan.

Protesting in front of the ministry office in Pretoria at the weekend, a small group of protesters accused Dr Jordan of contravening a moratorium on the export of baboons to foreign laboratories for experimental purposes.

The moratorium was announced by Dr Jordan in August last year, after a countrywide outcry over the intended export of baboons caught in the wild to the French military for warfare experiments.

The moratorium was to be in force in seven provinces excluding the Free State and KwaZulu Natal.

However, Dr Jordan, in what was described as a secret operation, gave permission for the baboons to be exported to France by the French-funded Centre Africain Primatologie Experimentale (Cape) in Mpumalanga.

Beatrice Wiltshire, of South Africans for the Abolition of Vivisection (SAAV) and national co-chairwoman of the Animal Groups Alliance of South Africa, said this lack of transparency and consultation could have dire consequences for non-governmental organisations under the African National Congress.

"We are also concerned that no proper count has been done of South Africa's primate population, which is becoming extinct in some areas because of being trapped and exported at up to R1 000 per monkey or baboon to foreign laboratories.

"We find the minister's laid-back attitude in the handling of this matter to be unsuited for a minister of the environment and therefore call for his immediate resignation," Ms Wiltshire said.

Animal activists overseas had joined their cause and would send a fax to President Mandela this week demanding Mr Jordan's dismissal.

"He is no longer to be trusted. As a result we have no choice, but to ask him to step down," she said.

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