Battle of the masts goes on
The Vodacom application to erect a cellular telephone mast on Irene Avenue in Somerset West has gone away, but the application by CellC to erect a mast in the Helderberg Nature Reserve still appears to be on track. Environmental practitioner Mark Day of Enviroworks in Somerset West, the firm driving the public participation process on behalf of Vodacom, told Bolander last week that Vodacom had decided not to go ahead with the application, to the relief of residents in the area, who strongly opposed the application.
“It was a valuable participation process, and I want to thank the public and all civil society institutions for their inputs. Vodacom has decided to withdraw the application after considering the response from the community,” said Mr Day.
The application by CellC also resulted in strenuous resistance from the community, which was side-lined by reducing the tower height from 25 to 15 metres, which effectively does away with the need for environmental approval, and the matter now sits with the City of Cape Town.
According to planning and building development management director Cheryl Walters, a notice was published by the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning on July 17 2009.
The notice ensures “proper accommodation of freestanding base telecommunication stations (FBTS) and rooftop base telecommunication stations (RBTS) in zoning schemes of the City of Cape Town until such time the City of Cape Town’s integrated zoning scheme is functional”.
The notice amends the zoning scheme regulations in terms of section 9(2) of the 1985 Land Use Planning 0rdinance, because erection of such FBTS or RBTS is a primary right which requires no land use planning approval. The only decision that is now required of the City of Cape Town, is whether or not to grant Cell-C a lease for use of the land.
Residents in Hillcrest Avenue – which borders the Helderberg Nature Reserve where the mast will be erected – are furious, believing that the process is flawed. Lynda Viljoen, who has taken a lead in mobilising residents against the erection of the mast, spoke to Bolander on Friday.
“They’re trying to slip this in via the back door. We need to protect the environment, not only for ourselves, but for our children as well. If we allow this to happen in the nature reserve, what will be next?”
This is setting a dangerous precedent. We know how fragile nature is, particularly now, and we need to protect it. We must all take a firm stand as a community. It’s not just my backyard, it’s all our backyards. This is our nature reserve and it must be protected,” she said.According to acting director property management Will Anderson, the process is far from over. In an email response last week to questions posed by Bolander, he said: “An application has been submitted (by Cell-C) and has been circulated for comments to service branches as part of our business processes.
In terms of the land use application, the current zoning of the property allows this installation as a primary right.
The next step in our standard operating procedures is to conduct a public participation process in terms of the provisions of the Municipal Finance Management Act, the associated Asset Transfer Regulations and the City’s policy on the management of certain of the City of Cape Town’s immovable property, giving the public the opportunity to officially object to the proposal, if they so wish.
The notice will be published in the Cape Times, Burger, and forwarded to inter alia the ward councillor, sub-council manager and adjoining land owners.” In an earlier email, Mr Anderson said that “council’s co-location policy will no doubt be taken into account”.
But Ms Viljoen feels that the co-location policy being “taken into account” is not enough. “We feel that the co-location policy must be enforced, because there is an existing tower about 200m from the proposed location on Kingskloof Farm.
The owner, Mr Richard Newton King has already indicated that he would be okay with the equipment being located on the existing mast on his farm,” she said. “I appeal to all residents in the Helderberg to contact the City of Cape Town and express their opposition to the erection of the mast in the nature reserve.”
Ms Viljoen added that when the environmental study public participation process was terminated, none of the objections received were sent on to the City of Cape Town. This means that people who have lodged objections previously with environmental consultant Lieuwe Boonstra of Warren Petterson Planning, must do so again, directly to the City of Cape Town.
- Address your letters regarding the erection of the Cell-C mast in the Helderberg Nature Reserve to Melissa Prins, in the City of Cape Town’s property management department at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Written by Norman McFarlane You are reading Battle of the masts goes on articles
