Sir Robert Baden-Powell would be proud. The founder and first chief scout of the worldwide S cout movement may now rest more peacefully knowing that an enormous cellphone perched on top of the scout hall in Clifton has finally been removed.
Baden-Powell, a former lieutenant-general in the British army, once famously resisted a 217-day siege in Mafikeng during the Second Anglo-Boer War. But he may not have endured the four-and-a-half years it took to liberate the scout hall roof in the parking area of Clifton Fourth Beach.
Fortunately salvation was at hand in the form of tenacious lawyer and Clifton resident Billy Gundelfinger, who stepped forward to represent the 177 bungalow owners of Clifton, Glen Beach and Bakoven (The Bungalow Owners’ Association).
Gundelfinger is one of South Africa's best-known criminal and divorce lawyers whose former clients include Cyril Ramaphosa, Mandla Mandela, Tokyo Sexwale and Baby Jake’ Matlala.
Starting in 2016, a battle of legal attrition ended with victory for Gundelfinger two weeks ago, when the city finally made good on its promise to remove the mast after residents’ complaints about visual pollution.
“The cell mast equipment was removed and relocated to the alternative site off Victoria Road at the end of February 2021,” confirmed city spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo this week.
However the move is too little too late for Gundelfinger, who wants the city to investigate the circumstances surrounding the mast affair, in particular the lease arrangements with cellphone providers which caused the delay. He wants to know why the city entered into a 10-year lease with a cellphone provider related to the Clifton site two days before it gave written notice to the BOA that the mast and associated infrastructure would be removed.
Said Gundelfinger: “The Clifton area is of high scenic significance as it is a designated scenic drive in terms of the city’s bylaws. The beautiful sea-view drive on Victoria Road was destroyed by the MTN mast and infrastructure protruding into the sea (but for the mast and infrastructure there was previously an uninterrupted view of the ocean).”
“BOA on July 9 2017 demanded an inquiry by the City of Cape Town. The previous mayor, Patricia de Lille, and the city manager to whom the matter was reported, did not pursue the matter. The current mayor, Dan Pluto, has ordered an investigation.”
The City of Cape Town did not clarify whether an investigation was under way. In response to a question about a possible probe, Tyhalibongo said: “MTN and Vodacom’s leases have been terminated for the Clifton scouts hall.”
The city previously linked the delay in moving the mast to difficulties in obtaining approvals for an alternative mast site. “The removal of the mast was subject to alternative site approval,” Tyhalibongo told the Sunday Times last year.
Commenting on the matter two years ago MTN spokesperson Jacqui O’ Sullivan said the city had granted the company permission to remain on the Clifton site until finalisation of an alternative site location in terms of a precinct redevelopment plan. “MTN was made aware of the dispute and there have been ongoing negotiations to find an alternative site for the mast,” O’ Sullivan said.
However Gundelfinger insists the removal of the scout hall mast was never conditional on the city finding an alternative site. He wants the city to investigate the circumstances about the MTN lease.
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