I am writing this letter to inform you of the latest developments regarding the fibre in the estate.

Firstly, we can now announce that we officially have fibre in our estate. You might have seen Telkom and Accelerate advertising at the gate. We will have more opportunities for them do their marketing in the Estate with a planned open day on the 4th of November.

Secondly, we need to address the situation with Accelerate technologies. In our previous communication we mentioned that they would be finished sometime in October. This has not happened due to Telkom having been given a monopoly in our Estate by Absa many years ago.

Accelerate was well underway with their installation when the managers of Open Serve (Telkom) indicated to us that they own the manholes and pipes. After conferring with legal counsel, we have been informed that since they were given sole rights by the developer many years ago, our only course of action would be litigation.

Research then showed that other Estates have tried fighting Telkom in court and have always lost. As you can imagine, we cannot afford to take on a massive company like Telkom, only to lose.

Now many would say, just leave it and go with Telkom. Well it is not that simple. True, we are trying to give the residents options and that is an important consideration, but it is not the main reason we are looking at Accelerate.

Our main concern is, and has always been Safety. We are desperate to install the infrared cameras on the boundary walls. As discussed in the AGM, the cameras will be monitored 24/7 and will give us the benefit of seeing the culprits before they even enter our Estate. In the past, there have been instances of damage to our boundary walls and electric fence by would be criminals trying to get in.

The cameras would allow us to “see” the criminals before they even reach the wall. But, for this we need reliable, constant internet access. As part of our agreement with Accelerate Technologies, they will not only provide us with the fibre line, but lay the fibre to the designated points for us, at no extra charge. Considering that the cables would have to be taken to the furthest points of the boundary wall, they would be doing us a great service and save us a lot of money.

It is for this reason that the directors have decided to accept their plan to lay their own cables in the Estate. As you can imagine, this is not the way we planned it, but fighting Telkom is simply not an option. We have reviewed their plan for the pipes they need to lay and have agreed that their route would cause the least amount of disruption.

They have agreed to tunnel under the roads as much as possible, to minimize the damage and repair to the roads. We will be monitoring the work closely and will be inconstant contact with the management to make sure that any damage caused, will be repaired to how it was before.

We do ask for your patience with the process, this is not how we wanted it to be, but we feel that at the end of the day a few weeks of discomfort is a small price to pay to ultimately make our Estate a safer place.

I thank you for your time and we will keep you updated on the matter.

Kind regards
Samantha Coetzee