‘Reckless’ MTN taken to court

An organisation calling itself the Durban Anti-Cell Mast Alliance (Dacma) on Friday filed papers at the High Court in Durban to stop MTN SA from rolling out new towers in the coastal city, it said.

Dacma, founded last year to “protest the illegal roll-out of MTN cell masts across Durban”, said yesterday that it had lodged court papers asking for “a review of the ‘secret deal’ that MTN concluded with the eThekwini municipality” in April 2016.

It alleged that eThekwini’s head of disaster management Vincent Ngubane “absolved MTN from any regulatory processes” when it erected new infrastructure in the city.

The alliance has accused MTN and eThekwini of “disregarding” by-laws and town planning schemes, and of contravening national legislation” and health and safety guidelines.

“Despite numerous newspaper reports, community activism, council questions, applications via the Promotion of Access to Information Act, legal correspondence and public meetings, neither eThekwini municipality nor MTN have done anything to explain how this situation came about, or whether they intend to rectify it,” said Dacma spokesperson Niki Moore. “We have been forced to go to court because both MTN and the eThekwini municipality have consistently lied about this secret arrangement.

“This infrastructure roll-out was completely unprocedural and secret, with the result that MTN put up cell masts, hundreds of them, next to creches, schools, old age homes, on people’s pavements, in play parks, and right outside their homes – with absolutely no consultation, no site planning, no permissions, no scoping and no public process. Anyone who complained was threatened and intimidated,” Moore alleged.

‘Better ways’

Dacma said it was “not against” the roll-out of communications technology but “believes there are better ways to go about it”.

“The cell companies hide behind the fact that they abide by socalled ‘international limits’,” said Moore, “but they suppress the fact that these limits have been unchanged since 1998, are based on discredited science, and do not consider the massive changes in technology in the last 10 years.

“We are hoping that this court case will make both municipalities and mobile telephone companies stop and think about their reckless actions.”

This article was first published on TechCentral

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