Lights go out at PE education offices

But capture of matric results won’t be affected by power cut over R5.4m debt

WITH less than a month to go before matric results are released, the Port Elizabeth education district is battling on in the dark after the electricity to its offices was cut over a R5.4-million municipal debt that is in arrears.

While the total owed to the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is R9.9-million, the amount the education district has to pay – or make arrangements to pay – before the metro will switch the lights back on is R5.4-million.

The Ethel Valentine office block in Sidwell is the latest casualty in the municipality’s quest to get account defaulters to cough up money owed.

It comes at a crucial time at the end of the school year, when education officials start to capture the matric exam results.

However, Port Elizabeth’s acting district director, Mphakamisi Hlekani, said the results were captured at their provincial offices and would not be affected by the power cut.

But it did mean the Port Elizabeth office was cut off from the other districts and Bhisho because it was unable to access the Persal system – used by the government to make payments.

Staff had also been leaving at noon every day for the past two weeks because they were unable to work without electricity.

“It has been a problem to capture information in the Persal system,” Hlekani said.

“If something urgent must be done on the system, [we] have to drive to the Uitenhage and Grahamstown district as the information can only be captured in another district office.”

The accounts of about 20 schools and education administration offices are 60 days overdue and 15 are 90 days behind with their payments, according to a municipal report seen by The Herald.

Those with the highest bills include Elufefeni Primary (R945 750), St Thomas (R905 890), DDT Jabavu (R536161), Walmer High (R521 632) and Khulile Primary (R451 731).

However, a large portion of the money owed by the schools is 30 days overdue, the report shows.

Power cuts have become endemic to the department over the years, largely because schools in the district are unable to pay their municipal rates and service charges.

The municipality said it had sent several notices to the department warning the power would be cut if its bills were not paid.

Budget and treasury political head Retief Odendaal said the district office had been playing cat-and-mouse games for a number of weeks.

“We gave them ample warning we were going to cut [the electricity] if they did not pay the R5.4-million in arrears,” he said.

“We don’t like to take action against government departments, but they have to pay the accounts or make arrangements [to pay them off].

“We cut the power about a week-and-a-half ago, and before that we sent several [notices] to them, and it’s only now that they’re coming to say ‘let’s make arrangements’.

“All we’re saying is don’t ignore us and put our request for payment in file 99.”

The municipality introduced stricter measures recently to get residents and businesses to pay.

This has seen power cut to account holders within 45 days of them not paying their outstanding debt, unless payment arrangements have been made or residents are part of the Assistance to the Poor Programme and qualify for discounts.

Provincial education spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said the agreement with the municipality was that it should rather disconnect the department’s electricity if schools failed to pay their bills.

“We [will arrange] with the municipality to pay off the debt as soon as possible,” he said.

“We will then recoup the money from the schools.”

Don’t ignore us and put our request for payment in file 99