SANBI is a public institution, not a private playground. Decolonisation is not symbolic; it is a material, political obligation. When leadership reproduces apartheid-era exclusivity in who is centred, protected, and heard, it betrays the public it claims to serve. The Western Cape’s history of racial exclusion did not end in 1994. It persists wherever institutions remain comfortable, insulated, and unaccountable. Transformation demands political courage, not silence or appeasement. Neutrality in