WE DON’T WANT THE BLAST FROM THAT MAST
BCM residents cry foul over consultation process for cellphone tower, citing fraud and misinformation to shove the plan through
A cellphone tower installation in Haven Hills has met strong opposition from residents who marched to the Ulundi Valley on Wednesday morning demanding the site be closed.
When the Dispatch arrived at the area on Wednesday morning, work had come to a standstill as 25 residents blocked the road leading to the site, with four police officers monitoring the situation.
Community leader Zwai Sonjica said they had not been consulted over the installation of the mast. “Residents did not receive any notification of construction work that would be undertaken in the area. The contractor says they were supposed to consult 15 people but they have evidence of four people who signed the consent form. There is no evidence of registered mail sent to the remaining 11 residents.”
He claimed fraudulent processes had been followed.
“The residents who signed consent forms were misinformed by the person who said that there would be construction of telephone lines infrastructure so that we can have landlines, and one of the signed consent forms has a signature of a resident but the signature does not belong to the said resident.”
He added that residents feared the radiation from the tower might affect their health and devalue their properties. “We are concerned about our health and the values of our houses. We have had meetings in the past two weeks and our councillor has not attended any of them and only attended one on Monday after he heard that there was a crane coming to put up the tower but we told them that no one is coming until we get to the bottom of this.”
Ward 16 councillor Roger Relo remains in the dark about the project. “I did not know about this until I was contacted by the residents. I have also never been consulted.”
Lumka Koyana, whose land is where the tower is being installed, said Buffalo City Metro approved the project. “I have documents here from town planning showing that there were no objections when the project started,” Koyana said.
A letter seen by the Dispatch from Atlas Power strategic leasing specialist Vuyo Nomangola says: “Over and above the listed requirements the department of health, radiation control directorate, based on the World Health Organisation findings on the effects of electromagnetic fields [EMF] states that there are no scientific grounds to support any allegation that adverse health effects might be suffered by a responsible member of the public due to the EMF emitted by a base station.”
Questions sent to BCM and Atlas Power were not answered at the time of going to print.
Nomangola said, “I can’t give you the answers now, I will have to talk to my management and find out what they have to say. Give me your e-mail address.”
No e-mail was received from the company.
I did not know about this until I was contacted by the residents, says councillor