The Vodacom tower at Sediba Plaza will be removed this week following the discovery that the base station was constructed on top of a municipal pipeline.

Water has been streaming from underneath the base station for the past two weeks.

This came to light last year when the Madibeng Municipality could not close valves to certain areas on the Rand Water line when pipes burst. It was discovered that the Vodacom base station was constructed on top of the water pipeline and a valve on Sediba Plaza’s premises.
The situation worsened when water started streaming from underneath the tower and municipal technicians were not able to access the infrastructure.
After a site meeting with Vodacom officials and municipal representatives, Vodacom requested the Madibeng Municipality for quotes and permission to reroute the municipal water supply. However, the request was denied.
“Vodacom confirms that it has not received a positive response to its request to reroute the municipal water supply. As a result, we are moving forward with the process of removing the temporary site at Sediba Plaza shopping centre this week after receiving correspondence from the council requesting that we do so.”
Vodacom said the removal of the base station would impact Vodacom customers. “It is crucial to remember that the removal of the temporary site may impair the Point-of-Sale (POS) systems and services of some of the businesses in the area,” a spokesperson for Vodacom said.
“Importantly, we will approach the municipality to request that they accelerate the approval of the new location for the base station site deployment in order to guarantee that we can continue to serve our customers in the area.”
Madibeng spokesperson Tumelo Tshabala said the municipality was aware of the situation and was actively engaging with Vodacom to address the issue.