Councillor corner: Telecommunication problems
For over a year now, councillors across the city have been battling with the problem of telecommunications companies digging up verges and footpaths to lay cable or to do maintenance work and then simply walking off the job, leaving exposed trenches, writes ward 91 councillor Andrew Stewart.
In some cases, footpaths have been left dug up for a year, a case in point being Linden Road in Strathavon.
This issue was raised with the Johannesburg Roads Agency depot managers and then escalated to the MMC of transport. The then MMC, Rihana Moosajee, acknowledged that they were aware of the problem and were engaging directly with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to resolve the matter.
There was an apparent stand off between the city council and a hand-full of telecom companies. The companies were claiming that they receive permission to lay cabling or to do maintenance from ICASA and that ICASA does not directly stipulate that they must restore footpaths or verges to their original state. Therefore, they do not feel responsible for cleaning up after themselves.
This is obviously a very cheeky stance to take, but equally frustrating has been the city council’s inability to resolve the matter. When the city council and regulatory bodies do not lay down the law, companies do what they feel they can get away with.
After waiting in vain for further feedback from the MMC’s office on this matter, I issued a fairly scathing press release, blaming the MMC’s office, ICASA but also the corporates for being just as bad as government officials.
As a result, the dug up footpath on Linden has been restored eventually, (not to residents satisfaction, but at least something was done). The Fibre-to-the-home Council (FTTH) of Africa, the body representing fibre optics companies, seems to have taken notice and would like to meet with me to discuss councillors’ complaints. Looking at the list of members of the FTTH council, I am disappointed to see that the big boys, Telkom and Neotel, are not represented.
I am hoping that this will be the start, however, of progress with this ongoing debacle. Once again though, we are proving that you have to run to the media before supposedly impartial bodies and organisations begin to do their jobs.
