The African Christian Democratic Party expressed its deep concern about the new draft policy proposal, gazetted recently by the Minister Ndabeni-Abrahams, for the rapid rollout of 5G technology. In terms of this draft policy, any infrastructure built on this land would belong to the network which built it and property owners are directed to avoid damage to the facilities built on their property, even if it adversely affects their health. Disputes are to be dealt with by ICASA.

The ACDP believes that granting service providers unfettered access to private property would be a violation of property owner's constitutional rights, but of greater concern to the ACDP are the potential health hazards 5G carries.

Environmental scientist, Laura Taylor, who has extensively researched electro-magnetic radiation (EMR) measurement, stated that "No one has declared this new form of radiation safe and it has barely been tested by the telecoms community internationally. They are flying blind on the health and environmental effects and putting profit before people. 5G towers will have to be placed every 500m to work.They operate at a much higher frequency than previous cellphone technology, and will be rolled out on top of existing 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G networks. It adds to the increasing sandwich of harmful effects to human health and the environment. Already thousands of studies and 20 000 peer-reviewed papers have shown the harmful effects of EMR caused by non-ionising radiation" of 5G.

Together with the ACDP, all concerned South Africans should call for the immediate cessation of the rolling out of 5G in South Africa, until a proper health risk analysis has been completed. We cannot promote profit above the health of our citizens.

ACDP MP Wayne Thring