•Outraged residents head for court
MTN is building new infrastructure across
South Africa to catch up with its rival Vodacom. It began its national
expansion in Johannesburg in 2014 where, in terms of a “municipal
infrastructure arrangement” with City Power, antennae were erected on
streetlight poles to create purpose-built masts with minimal effect on the
environment.
The
City of Johannesburg wanted to increase income by commercialising municipal
infrastructure and the agreement with MTN followed the issuing of a tender.
In 2016, MTN concluded a similar agreement
in Durban with the head of the disaster management department, Vincent Ngubane,
apparently in his personal capacity. MTN insists that the deal is legal and
above board, but could not produce any evidence of a process or contract.
The existence of this “arrangement”
emerged after residents in several upmarket Durban suburbs noticed the
construction of concrete masts on traffic islands and municipal spaces in
September 2016.
Alarmed residents sought answers from
their councillors, and were told they were CCTV poles that would be fitted with
cameras with number-plate recognition facilities.
City spokeswoman Tozi Mthethwa issued a
statement reassuring residents that the poles were part of the city’s
Integrated Development Programme to create a safer city. “The objective was to
reduce crime in various parts of the city as well as to have coverage of parts
of the city where high levels of crime have been reported,” she said.
But Mthethwa concealed the fact that the
towers were purpose-built cell masts for MTN. After they had been erected, they
were fitted with antennae instead of CCTV cameras. All the construction firms
said MTN was their client.
Asked to produce municipal planning
permission for the masts, not one company was able to do so. Mast providers
Tellumat, Atlas Towers and FT Engineering did not respond to requests for
comment, or comply with requests to produce proof of municipal permission for
the structures.
A site plan photographed by Durban
resident Ivor Rixon for a tower that was built by Tellumat opposite his house
did not have the required municipal stamp. When he asked why the mast was being
built, he received a visit from a metro police official. “He was very
threatening and told me that if I got in the way of the tower being built he
would arrest both me and my ward councillor.”
The planning and development department
says plans for the towers had not been channelled through the municipality and
the department had been bypassed on the instruction of Ngubane.
“He told me that if I got in the way of
the tower being built he would arrest both me and the councillor
“Builders of masts on traffic islands
should have permission from eThekwini’s roads and traffic department. An
official at the department says its processes had been bypassed on the
instructions of Ngubane. Deputy mayor Fawzia Peer says permission is not
necessary for camera poles.
“From the very onset the process of CCTV
poles and installation has never needed involvement or approval by the development
and planning department but relevant processes for masts in terms of
engineering compliance were followed to ensure that the installation is
compliant with engineering standards.
“For major masts, Icasa [Independent
Communications Authority of SA] regulation determines public consultation but
in the case, the city masts are used to transfer wireless network to ensure
that there is no downtime or disturbance to camera monitoring. This is the
relationship we have which is for the benefit of the city and network providers
to ensure continuous monitoring of traffic, crime and the public realm.”
The
city refuses to explain why the masts do not have any surveillance cameras.
MTN is using two processes to erect its
hundreds of cell antennae in Durban. The “municipal infrastructure sharing
agreement” allows the company to erect antennae on existing municipal
infrastructure such as light poles and camera towers. This permits MTN to
bypass the public participation process.
The erection of new cell masts on private
or municipal property requires a long procedure including a
public-participation process, as well as the submission and approval of plans.
This process is the subject of a court challenge, as it is alleged that these
steps have not taken place.
A case
pending before the High Court in Durban involves litigation between residents
of Unit 10 in Chatsworth and cell mast-construction company Atlas Towers
regarding a mast that was erected illegally at a school.
According
to court papers filed in March, Atlas Towers was served with a contravention
order in November 2016 because it had not received planning permission from the
municipality. It was issued with a fine for contravening the National Building
Regulations and Building Standards Act. Despite this, Atlas Towers completed
the mast and MTN activated it on January 26.
Atlas
Towers is a US-based construction company that recently bought 1,400 towers
from Cell C and has undertaken to build a further 1,800 towers. It rents the
infrastructure to cellphone service providers.
DA
councillors in the eThekwini metro council are calling for a probe into the
“secret deal” between MTN and Ngubane and why Mthethwa seems to have misled the
public about the towers’ purpose.
“The DA cannot recall that any such
agreement had come before any standing committee of the council for
ratification, nor did any request for permission to enter into such an
agreement,” says DA councillor Martin Meyer.
A year ago, Ngubane was named in a fraud
investigation involving R50m. It was alleged that he had misused municipal
funds, inflated contract costs, failed to comply with supply-chain management
policies, created ghost workers and awarded contracts irregularly.
Ngubane refused to answer questions about
the MTN deal and MTN referred all queries to the eThekwini municipality.
•Adapted from a Business Day SA
report.
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