MTN has announced that it has started the process of collating documentation and external approvals required for the Land Use application regarding the alleged ‘illegal’ masts erected in and around Durban.
In a statement, Jacqui O’Sullivan, executive for corporate affairs at MTN SA, said MTN entered into an agreement with the municipality through the Disaster Management and Emergency Control Unit ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Year later, this partnership was shown to be misaligned with another regulation of the the Land Use Management Unit within the municipality, in terms of the municipal approval processes.
O’Sullivan said the matter had taken far too long to resolve.
“MTN should have done a better job of explaining the situation to the community and explaining what we were doing over the past 18 months with the municipality, to find a compliant solution for the masts located on the municipal camera poles. All these sites must be compliant – compliance matters and our communities matter,” she said.
She said towards the end of February 2018, the municipality defined the process that MTN, along with all other mobile operators making use of the camera poles, would be required to follow. She said MTN was currently collating the required information for that application.
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“This involves three steps including securing approval from the Civil Aviation Authority, securing an Environmental Impact Assessment and completing the Land Use Special Consent Application and then submitting that application to the municipality,” she said.
O’Sullivan said this process would involve public participation on sites identified by the municipality.
“If MTN sites have to come down, they will. If MTN sites have to be moved, that will happen. MTN will be entirely guided by the municipal process. We want to do our best to continue offering the people of eThekwini the high speed and widescale coverage we have been able to offer them. However, we will also not stand for anything other than compliance. We will do our best to try and meet both sets of expectations,” she said.
She said MTN had started the process of collating the documentation and external approvals and hoped to conclude this within the next eight to 12 weeks.
Resident and spokesperson for the Durban Anti-Cell Mast Alliance, Niki Moore, responded to MTN’s statement, saying she felt MTN did not fully understand the amount of anger and frustration that was being directed against MTN in Durban.
ALSO READ: Residents gun for MTN as war on cell masts heats up
“It is simply not good enough to go back to the municipality and to do a retro-active box-ticking exercise, while ignoring the people you have been harming with this ill-considered project. We have absolutely no confidence that the eThekwini Metro will be honest or ethical. The entire project was corrupt from the beginning, with MTN’s full collaboration,” she said.
Moore said the ‘illegal’ masts were fully operational, badly placed and had severely impacted on people’s lives.
“They have severely affected people’s health and require an immediate disconnection. The residents of Durban do not want MTN’s attempts to ‘enrich their lives’, their lives have been ‘enriched’ beyond all recognition and to their severe detriment. If MTN is sincere in its willingness to serve the public, it will issue an unreserved apology to the people of Durban whose lives were ruined by this ill-considered project, will disconnect the illegal masts straight away and will seriously take people’s wishes into account before continuing, instead of talking solely to the people who allowed this egregious state of affairs in the first place,” said Moore.
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