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Residents shrug off iBurst claims

Nicola Mawson
By Nicola Mawson, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 15 Jan 2010

Fourways residents are still keen to head to court, despite claims by iBurst that one of its towers could not have caused health problems.

Residents have attributed a host of illnesses, such as skin rashes, headaches, vomiting, sleep disorders, fatigue, upset stomachs and tinnitus, to the mast. The tower, which is adjacent to Fourways Memorial Park, in Craigavon, was turned on last August.

However, iBurst CEO Jannie van Zyl says the tower could not have caused the illnesses, as it has actually been switched off for two months.

“During the period between September and December, while residents were reporting symptoms, correlating them to being in the tower area, the iBurst tower was continuously switched off for more than two months,” says Van Zyl.

As a result, he says, the tower cannot have been the cause of the illnesses. “This proves conclusively that any health issues experienced by the residents were not, and never could have been, caused by the iBurst tower.”

Going ahead

Yet, despite Van Zyl's claims, residents are still following the legal route, says lawyer Bismarck Olivier, from Bezuidenhout van Zyl Incorporated. “No matter what he [Van Zyl] says, residents will proceed with legal remedies.

At the moment, the residents are pursuing remedies available through the Department of Environmental Affairs, he notes.

The tower at the centre of the claims was meant to have been turned off for two weeks last year, but residents dispute this as they were not granted permission to fully test the tower's radiation output.

Van Zyl has repeatedly denied the tower causes the illnesses, and that it was improperly constructed, which is another of the residents' complaints.

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