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The Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, condemned the burning and destruction of the infrastructure of the cell phone network tower and urged the South African police to arrest those responsible.
The burning of the cell phone towers follows a resurgence of conspiracy theories linking the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic to 5G, the minister said.
So far, three telecommunications network infrastructure towers belonging to Vodacom and MTN were burned and destroyed between Tuesday and Wednesday this week in KwaZulu-Natal.
Ndabeni-Abrahams has described the disinformation campaign as a threat to investments and the infrastructure of the telecommunications network.
“It is regrettable that much-needed network infrastructure is being destroyed. Currently, the country needs high-speed and resilient connectivity for all citizens to enable them to participate meaningfully in the digital economy. In addition, mobile telephony is crucial in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
“The destruction of network towers compromises efforts and initiatives on multiple fronts to stop the spread of the virus. Therefore, we urge the police to arrest anyone who threatens to remove the stations or towers from the infrastructure network, ”said Ndabeni-Abrahams.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been several social media campaigns linking the 5G network to the virus outbreak. However, the World Health Organization has dispelled those myths.
In its recent statement on this matter, the WHO said: “To date, and after much research, no adverse health effects have been causally linked to exposure to wireless technologies.”
The WHO statement on the matter was also shared by the South African Department of Health, which also described such claims as unfounded.
“We must also remind South Africans that spreading false news or disinformation about Covid-19 is a punishable offense. Those involved in the destruction of infrastructure are not only breaking the law, they are also violating people’s right to access information, ”said Ndabeni-Abrahams.
Read: Users will not be able to use WhatsApp unless they agree to Facebook’s privacy changes.
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