Conservation

Policy
Initiatives
Successes
Reports

-----------------
Access
Links
Shop
PinBoard
Archive
Contact Us

Successes

GOLDEN GATE TELECOMMUNICATION MAST DISMANTLED:

Let it not be said that NGO's has no impact. Through initiating action by the MCSA, in particular the then Convenor for Conservation of the Magaliesberg Section, Reuben Heydenrych, the following was achieved. From Pretoria News (26 March 2002): The impressive sandstone formations in the eastern Free State - one of the major reasons for the proclamation of the Golden Gate Highlands National Park - will no longer have to compete with a communications tower for attention. In a R4,2 million exercise, Telkom has removed the tower, erected in the park five years ago and sited a fibre-optic route from Clarens to the park. In a major exercise, contractors dismantled and removed the tower in an intensive two-week operation. The recovery of all the concrete rubble which formed the plinth on which the tower was buttressed, cost just under R500 000 and saw a helicopter make 170 individual flights.... The operation followed a comprehensive environmental impact assessment and public participation process during which alternatives were considered. (In 1998 the MCSA wrote to the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, then Pallo Jordan, that the mast was erected in mid-January 1998 in contravention of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations which became mandatory for telecommunications structures on 5 January 1998. Only then, the required processes were followed. Mooi so, Reuben).

See also: Masts on mountains