Residents around Klopper Street say they were surprised to see preparations for the new cell phone tower on a yard at the corner of Klopper and Froneman streets.
“I was walking one day and saw a man digging a hole. I asked him whether he was building a swimming pool. My jaw dropped when he said they were building a Vodacom tower because they had never spoken to us. I later went around and asked neighbours whether I was the only one who had been missed in the consultation process. Many of them told me they had also not been informed about it,” says one of the residents, who has since started a petition against the tower.
Another affected resident, Mr Eugene Potgieter, says he and other residents had started communicating with Vodacom over the issue because of these issues.
According to Vodacom’s spokesperson, Mr Themba Mathebula, the company always strives to balance their business needs against the various concerns of the communities they operate in. This is embedded in the way we do business. The need for additional base stations arose because South Africa is in the middle of a mobile connectivity boom.
“The World Health Organization (WHO) states in its summary of Health Effects about Electromagnetic Fields that “Despite extensive re- search, to date, there is no evidence to conclude that exposure to low- level electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health”.
Vodacom complies with ICNIRP guidelines on levels of exposure to RF fields, including that from mobile phones and base stations. These guidelines have a large safety margin built into them. Voluntary compliance with the ICNIRP guidelines is recommended by the South African Department of Health,” says Mathebula. However, he noted that the company was looking into the matter further.
(This article is an excerpt of an article that appeared in this week’s edition of the Herald. – Editor)
