Building rubble trouble

Vumatel is cleaning up after it and two alleged other parties, used municipal land to dump building rubble.

Harry Clare, who said he rents the municipal ground and lives next to it, said Vumatel started using the site to dump building rubble a month ago. “It is a health risk and if it should rain, vehicles will crash into these skips on the sharp bend,” he said.

Clare posted his complaint along with a photo on various social media networks, where Vumatel tracked him down.

“Our representative in the area, John Rogers, has already responded to the posts, as we pride ourselves in communication with the communities in which we deploy the Vumatel network,” Vumatel spokesperson Kirsten Eddey said.

Eddey said that Vumatel, another resident and an infrastructure company are using the site. “We have worked through the night to clean it up, despite the fact that there are three responsible parties for the mess. We will continue to work to restore the area by Friday evening,” she said.

“We always endeavour to keep an area is tidy as possible and cause as little disruption as possible. We go above and beyond to look after residents in the areas in which we build and are, therefore, taking responsibility to clean up this area, despite the fact that it has not solely been caused by Vumatel’s deployment activities.”

On why the rubble ended up on the ground in the first place, Eddey explained that Vumatel is permitted to set up a camp in the area where they can responsibly dispose of rubble collected during the building process.

The open piece of land, that Vumatel learned did not belong to City Parks, did not have any signage that it was private propoerty or rented from the City, she said. “We, therefore, placed the skips in this location believing it to belong to the municipality. Since finding out that it is, indeed, rented from the council by a resident, Vumatel has arranged to remove the skips and rubble by Friday this week.”

Clare confirmed that Vumatel was in the process of clearing the rubble.

“They have skips here and a JCB [mechanical excavator] – [thanks to] the power of social media,” he said.

Vumatel, a network infrastructure provider, has been active in Northcliff recently, installing new fibre cables in the neighbourhood. Residents have also shared their excitement and support for the installation on social media.