A resident in Sandton is very frustrated with a fibre company that has dumped their cables on a corner after they completed the work.
The offensive cables are on the corner of Benmore and Pam roads in front of the church, and resident Patricia Shaw said the cables had been left there for about four months.
“I have made contact with Vumatel who said the cables does not belong to them. My main concern is the way it looks, and it blocks the pedestrian walkway, which poses a danger to pedestrians.”
Shaw said she has also made contact with the ward councillor.
Vincent Earp, ward 103 councillor, said the fibre optic companies applied directly to the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) for a wayleave to dig up the pavements to lay fibre optics.
“Sadly they do not consult the community or the councillor and permission is simply granted by JRA.”
Earp said, as a result, they assume the pavements are their workspace, and they leave the cables lying around. “By doing so, they do not have the interest of the community at heart. The cable company should be fined for abandoning their extra cabling on the pavement.
“Some fibre optics companies do consult, and they clear the area once the installation is completed, but our problem is that there are often two or three fibre optic companies laying cables who compete for business in the same area.”
Earp said he would request JRA to investigate and if they can’t ascertain who the cables belong to, he will ask Pikitup to remove the dumped material.
Sandton Chronicle has approached JRA for comment but had not received a response yet at the time of publishing.
Have you had problems with a fibre company dumping their cables? Send your stories to pieterd@caxton.co.za
