This follows the article, Sandton to be more connected, in which the company announced its intention to increase connectivity and signal reception across Johannesburg by replacing a select few City Power streetlights with their own, albeit with reception boxes.
Residents alleged that they were not consulted on the planned installation and simply woke up to find the replacement of the lights underway.
One resident, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed outrage at the apparent disregard of residents by MTN and City Power.
The resident explained that he woke up on the morning of 21 August to find labourers busy replacing the streetlight in front of his house.
“The morning after that, I woke up to find a huge pole with a round box on top which I assume is the aerial in its place and… of course I did not know why the previous pole was replaced as it worked just fine,” he explained.
The resident said he contacted Ward 104 councillor for Bryanston, Michael Wood.
Ward 103 councillor Vincent Earp, who has been receiving a lot of complaints from Bryanston residents about the installations, confirmed the project and explained that the councillors were only informed, not consulted, of the planned project a few days prior to the installation.
“The City of Johannesburg informed us of a presentation to be held with MTN,” said Earp. “They gave councillors approximately two days’ notice…then a meeting was held on the Thursday before installation began the following Monday.
“There was no public participation and City Power simply signed an agreement allowing MTN to utilise the City Power streetlight infrastructure to install mini cellular masts across suburbs in Johannesburg.”
Although Earp conceded that the streetlights installed were done on city council property, consultation with the public should have taken place as this had a direct impact on the financial value of residents’ properties.
He urged that residents would “still be able to appeal to MTN and City Power to have them removed, especially if they have real objections to the project”.
At the time of publication, City Power and MTN had still not responded to questions forwarded regarding the issue.
