Vodacom disruptions at Matumi being addressed
Matumi residents have continually been affected by service disruptions from Vodacom, of late. Residents in the area said that this problem has been affecting them since February and still has not been solved.
The Vodacom Mpumalanga regional team, based on the complaint received, wished to highlight the following dates and incidents: “On the Feb 17, the construction team at this new development (De Hallen) damaged this underground fibre which resulted in required subsequent repairs.
“This damage was attended to and the team brought up all related services within a few hours.”
The problem raised its head yet again, not long after the repairs.
“A similar failure occurred on March 3 or 4 and in this instance a temporary fix was implemented,” said the team.
According to Vodacom, its team met with the project manager of De Hallen after this “second damage to property” and a decision was made to reroute the fibre in order to avoid further breaks.
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“This temporary solution was implemented while the permanent solution was submitted for design approval.
“A dedicated contractor was appointed by Vodacom and its health and safety files have been approved with the schedule relocation planned from April 12.”
The target milestone for completion is April 16.
The Vodacom team said it has been in contact with affected customers on a daily basis and “continues to strive to have our customers connected as quickly as possible”.
The developers of De Hallen shopping centre, in turn, acknowledged the frustrations caused to the local community while the project was underway, and for that they apologised.
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“The new centre was constructed in record time with a very competent, professional team and contractor. Plans were submitted and approvals granted.
“Without playing the blame game with service providers the team was faced with the challenge of having to install news services into an old network. This with very little ‘as built’ information stating what services were installed where and which services belonged to who and which were still active.”
According to the developers, most of the service providers (electrical, water, data) were contacted and informed of their intentions.
“The majority of them were very willing and were proactive in assisting the team to reroute services temporary or to relay cables and replace pipes.
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“When services were interrupted, which unfortunately they were, both the contractor and most of these service providers acted quickly in reinstating the damaged services.”
The developers thanked the local community and service providers who assisted in meeting the opening date of April 1 and “for making the development such a success”.
