Schools forced to connect illegally
cation MEC, Khume Ramulifho, met Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba and brought the issue to his attention. He also wrote a letter to Mashaba.
“The continued lack of municipal services connectivity compromises the national mandate of providing quality education for all,” Lesufi said when he read his letter to the legislature. In the letter, he listed 11 schools that did not have electricity, water and sanitation.
Johannesburg’s executive director of environment and infrastructure services, Tiaan Ehlers, says Mashaba met Lesufi and other department officials on January 31. There have been two follow-up meetings in February and March.
Ehlers says five of the schools on the list have subsequently been connected to services as a result of the meetings.
But the likes of Lufhereng and Kibler Park secondary schools and the primary schools of Glenvista and Goza (in Freedom Park, Soweto) remain unconnected.
The fault lies with the provincial education department, which has failed to make applications to City Power or Johannesburg Water for the schools in question to be connected, he says.
The department claims it has submitted an application for water connection for Kibler Park Secondary School, but Johannesburg Water says it has not received any application, which is the reason the school is still without water. The department has not applied for electricity through City Power either, according to the city.
Glenvista Primary School, which opened its doors in January, does not have electricity. The city says that City Power has not received any application for connection from the provincial education department.
Two of the schools on the list can’t be located; the stand can’t be found, nor can the “correct property description”, which includes zoning and ownership, be found, says the city. These are Tshepo Ya Rona Secondary School in Lawley Extension 3 and Kanana Primary School in Kanana Park Extension 3 near Walkerville, both south of Johannesburg.
The city says the department needs to identify the correct location of the schools and apply for connections for water and electricity.
Gauteng education department spokesperson Oupa Bodibe says the department had submitted applications for the schools to be connected. The Mail & Guardian asked the department to provide proof of the applications, but it has not.
Bodibe says a contractor has been appointed to lay cables at Glenvista Primary School. He says the owner of the property on which Kibler Park Secondary stands owes municipal rates and taxes, and the landlord has been asked to settle up so that the school can get connected.
He adds that the department had to build the Tshepo Ya Rona and Kanana schools because of the influx of pupils from the Vlakfontein and Kanana settlements. Because of the urgent need, the schools were built before the areas were proclaimed.
A township may be approved but not proclaimed, with proclamation only happening after all the city’s conditions have been met, including the installation of services, according to Ehlers.