School’s utilities reconnected after high court application

It took intervention from the Pietermaritzburg High Court to get Raisethorpe Secondary School's water and lights reconnected after the school fell victim to Msunduzi's disconnection drive last week.

Dunveria Secondary School and Raisethorpe Seconday School were both disconnected due to rates arrears owed by the Department of Public Works. The amounts owed were over R2 million and over R1 million for each school respectively.

The disconnection of lights and water disrupted the start of Raisethorpe Secondary's matric trials examinations. Community members and a parent assisted the school with a generator and water so examinations and classes could continue as normal.

Raisethorpe Secondary School principal PT Gounden said he was appalled that they had to escalate the matter to the high court to get the service of the school restored. He also thanked the community and parents for assisting the school.

“I am disappointed that we had to go to the Pietermaritzburg High Court to restore what should not have happened in the first place. The school’s water and electricity bill is up to date. There was a group of municipal staff that came and made the disconnections. Despite me pleading with the staff [for time] to make the necessary interventions. I thank and appreciate the community and parents for understanding. Many thanks to the parents who donated water and thank you to the parent who donated a generator for our use,” said Gounden.

Dunveria Secondary School had their water restored yesterday just before 11am after an intervention with the school governing body, Department of Public Works and the Msunduzi Municipality.

“It was a travesty beyond understanding that our learners had to go without water for nine days. The school governing body, with my guidance, spoke with the Department of Public Works and Msunduzi Municipality and we informed them of what transpired.

"Our water was restored by 11 am. Revision classes for our Grade 8 and 9 learners were greatly disrupted and now we have to compensate for it. Our Grade 10 and 11 learners started their examinations yesterday. We hope that our learners are never in this situation again where they are prevented from learning.

"We thank all the businesses, stakeholders and Ward 30 DA councillor Rachel Soobiah for all their assistance. From our business stakeholders we thank Crime Watch, Mr. Sheik, Mi7 and Nedbank. We also thank Super Cool for donating 1000 sachets of water and Umgeni Water for 500 bottles of water and all the parents and community for their assistance,” said principal Anand Gounden.

Msunduzi Municipality’s disconnection drive, Operation Qoqama-million, commenced two weeks ago with the intention of collection R5.5 billion owed to them in rates from city consumers. The city has so far collected R100 million of what was owed to them in rates.

Responding to the disconnections last week, the Department of Public Works issued a statement saying they were busy processing the invoices received on August 15, and requested Msunduzi to restore the electricity.

“The department wishes to place on record that the invoices for the current financial year from Msunduzi Municipality were received on August 15, and are currently being processed. The department hereby makes an undertaking that the due payments will be paid to the municipality on or before September 30.

“In light of the above, Msunduzi Municipality is hereby requested to reconnect the electricity at the various provincial facilities as this has a negative impact on the service delivery to the people of Kwazulu-natal, including the learning environment for school children,” the statement read.