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MTN and eThekwini Municipality face court action - eThekwini Metro and MTN - the cover-up has begun

MTN and eThekwini Municipality face court action - eThekwini Metro and MTN - the cover-up has begun

Date: 2018-10-19

Despite a public undertaking to co-operate with the Durban Anti-Cell Mast Alliance (DACMA) with regard to their 'secret deal' with MTN, the city has now changed its mind and has filed belated opposing papers in the High Court. This means that the eThekwini Municipality wants to keep secret the arrangements it made with MTN regarding the huge and irregular infrastructure roll-out that MTN undertook in 2016.

In August 2018, DACMA approached the High Court to get an order that would compel the city to reveal its documentation and processes involved in the massive infrastructure roll-out that was done with cellular service provider MTN in 2016/2017. The city has now indicated that it is not prepared to furnish this information, and will oppose the application that will compel them to do so.

"What has made the city change its mind " asks DACMA spokesperson Niki Moore. "All we want, is to see the documentation around this process, which resulted in hundreds of cell masts being put up across Durban withour any compliance. The fact that both MTN and the city are now resisting an attempt to get clarity, shows that they have something to hide. The city ignored our Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) request, and now they are opposing a court order. We can only assume that processes were not followed, that there is, in fact, no documentation, and that both the city and MTN are complicit in some huge cover-up."

"Unfortunately MTN has a very poor record when it comes to compliance, as we can see in other countries where it does business, such as Nigeria, Iran, Kenya, Cameroon, Uganda, Liberia, and others. In every single one of these countries, MTN has been under investigation for some infringement of the law. So it is not difficult to believe that the 'secret deal' with Ethekwini Municipality is more of the same. The fact that both entities are now refusing to co-operate, makes this look very suspicious."

The 'secret deal' started in March 2016, when MTN signed a number of lease agreements with eThekwini Head of Disaster Management Vincent Ngubane to put up cellular base stations across Durban on municipal property. The lease agreements make it very clear that MTN is required to comply with all regulations and laws.

However, when the masts began to go up, the city explained to curious residents that they were 'camera poles' for CCTV cameras and therefore needed no compliance. There was no mention of cell masts.

But when the MTN cellular antennae were attached instead of cameras, residents began asking questions. None of these questions has been answered satisfactorily.

City officials have alleged that they were instructed by Vincent Ngubane to allow the masts to be erected and activated with no processes being followed. MTN has consistently issued vague, contradictory and inconsistent explanations for the roll-out.

MTN admitted in March 2018 that the masts were the result of a 'misalignment' and that they were working to make them compliant. The city issued a statement to say that none of the non-compliant masts were operational. Neither of these statements is true.

"We were forced to bring this matter to court because we kept getting nonsensical explanations for what is going on, none of which was backed up with documents," said Moore. "We were extremely happy when we were informed the city would co-operate. We believed that an investigation, backed up with proper documentation, would reveal the truth and provide some context. Now the city has indicated they will not co-operate. The only conclusion it is possible to draw from this is that the whole deal was highly irregular, possibly corrupt, and both the city and MTN want to suppress the truth."

eThekwini Metro has until the end of October to furnish reasons to the court why it is not prepared to release the documentation.