CELLPHONE giant MTN and the eThekwini Municipality have been accused of violating the city’s by-laws following their joint venture to erect cellphone masts across the city.
Tonight residents are to demand answers from city officials during a public meeting convened to discuss the issue.
The Durban Anti-Cell Mast Alliance claims that MTN has erected a total of 123 cellphone masts across the city without complying with the city’s spatial planning regulations.
The residents’ body claims this was made possible by an “irregular arrangement” between the city and the mobile network, which also led to the all-important public participation process being circumvented.
The municipality’s Base Telecommunications Transmission Stations (cellular masts) policy makes provision for a public consultation process as part of the requirements for the scoping report.
“The biggest problem with these illegal masts is that the secret deal has allowed MTN to put up masts in completely inappropriate places. It seems that the city simply told MTN where to put them, without any planning or scoping. Of course, the residents of Durban were never given any opportunity to object, as the public participation process was not followed. Residents were simply presented with a fait accompli,” said Niki Moore, the spokesperson for the Anti-Cell Mast Alliance.
She said in some cases cell masts were not properly approved; in another case a cell mast was erected in a children’s play area, while the mast in Rick Turner Road is beaming directly into people’s houses.
Moore, who is a resident of Glenwood, said the rate at which the antennae have been rolled out in the city by all the cellphone companies was concerning.
“The signals are getting stronger and stronger, and nobody knows what 4G radiation does to people.”
Moore said residents were “deliberately misled” when they started questioning these masts that started popping up in Durban in 2016, as they were initially told they were for CCTV cameras.
Responding to questions from The Mercury, the city acknowledged that there were some poles that were not compliant with the by-laws, but said there were "only" 40 of these, and that they were currently not operational.
“While MTN may not have adhered to all the relevant land use management protocol in respect of the 40 new poles, steps are being taken to ensure compliance,” said city spokesperson Tozi Mthethwa.
She said across the city there were currently 327 poles being used by various companies as cell masts, and all these had been approved by the city. The 327 poles, Mthethwa said, had been rolled out in preparation for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
“During the same time, MTN approached the city seeking permission to rent the city’s poles for their cell masts. All poles MTN is currently making use of have been approved by the city.”
Asked if there was ever any special “infrastructure sharing” agreement between the city and MTN, Mthethwa said the city’s Disaster Management Unit had entered into an agreement with MTN and other network operators for the use of the city’s 327 CCTV camera poles as cell masts.
MTN spokesperson Jacqui O’Sullivan, said the company was working closely with the municipality to ensure that a solution was reached on the matter.
“MTN has been engaging with the relevant departments on this camera pole matter for a number of years, and specifically in recent months, in an attempt to secure clarity on a way forward. Last week, we received valuable feedback from the eThekwini Municipality, and we are currently engaging with the relevant officials to finalise the way forward.
"We are confident this will be resolved within the coming months, as directed by municipal approval process timelines,” she said.
The Durban Anti-Cell Mast Alliance has called a public meeting tonight, where residents had planed to “grill” MTN chief executive Rob Shuter.
But O’Sullivan said while the company respected the request for an MTN representative to be present at the event, it had decided that it would respond once there was an approved solution.
“The required solution will be applicable to all the mobile network operators currently making use of these camera poles. We hope to have this within the next few weeks. This is a priority. Once the process is confirmed, there will potentially be further public participation, as guided by the municipality, and legally approved next steps.”