School takes Msunduzi to court for power, water cuts

A PIETERMARITZBURG school successfully brought a high court application to have its electricity and water supplies restored after they were disconnected by the municipality.

Raisethorpe Secondary School was forced to bring the application in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Thursday after the Msunduzi municipality disconnected the supply on Monday over claims of unpaid municipal rates.

Since the launch of the municipality’s disconnection drive called Operation Qoqama Million last Friday, the municipality has been clamping down on alleged defaulters that included schools, government entities, businesses and residential properties, to recoup R5.5 billion.

Among those who had their services disconnected were Transnet, the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) Pietermaritzburg local offices, Home Affairs and a hotel. According to the municipality’s Facebook page, the revenue collection team, who were part of the operation, collected over R40 million since last Friday.

PT Gounden, the principal at Raisethorpe Secondary School, said he was shocked to learn they owed Msunduzi Municipality more than R2m in rates.

“The rates in question for which the water and power supplies were disconnected by the Msunduzi municipality is the sole responsibility of the Department of Public Works and not the school.

“Until September 5, 2022, Raisethorpe Secondary has never received any statements from Msunduzi Municipality regarding the arrears of rates,” said Gounden in his affidavit to court.

He said the Public Works Department wrote to the municipality on September 5, giving an undertaking that due payments would be made on or before September 30.

“There are 229 matric learners at this very point who are sitting down to write their trial exams which will determine the learners’ future careers in our country.

“There are 1 000 learners who are unable to write exams who have now been prejudiced,” said Gounden.

He said the school was in need of water and power to carry out the daily duty of providing education to learners.

Gounden told the Sunday Tribune that the water and electricity bill at the school was always up-to-date.

Another school whose water was disconnected was Dunveria Secondary in Orient Heights in Pietermaritzburg.

Anand Gounden, principal at Dunveria Secondary School, said they were only able to have their Grade 12 pupils in school for the trial exams.

“Children from grades 8 to 11 have had no teaching and learning since Monday. Our utility bill is up-todate. It disconnected our water supply because of outstanding rates.

“The rates are not the responsibility of the school. The worrying factor is not receiving feedback as to when it will be restored,” said Gounden.

Kwazi Mthethwa, spokesperson for the provincial Education Department, said they have asked the district director to establish which schools were affected.

“We want to know what amounts were owed and to who.

“We shall then engage with the relevant departments,” said Mthethwa.

Ntobeko Mkhize, acting spokesperson for the Msunduzi Municipality, said the municipality had been receiving payments on accounts that were disconnected and had reconnected the services.

“The municipality’s debtors book is currently sitting at R5.5bn.

“There is an amount of R1.2bn for rates alone which has accrued since 2017.

“The municipality intends to collect at least half with this campaign.

“The municipality was lenient on defaulting government departments and businesses for far too long.

“The finance department has in the past sent notices and even final notices to these entities in a bid to get them to pay, and those notices were not responded to.

“While the municipality does not intend to discuss individual consumer accounts with a third party, we can confirm that there are other schools that had their electricity supply services disconnected and/or water services restricted due to arrears on their accounts,” said Mkhize.

Les Govender, an IFP member in the provincial legislature, said it was an intergovernmental issue.

“We can’t have education jeopardised because there is no agreement between the two tiers of government.

“The MEC for Education and the MEC for Cogta need to come to an understanding.

“This is not only jeopardising education but is also placing children and teachers’ lives at risk if there is no water at a school.

“Water is a basic human rights need,” said Govender.

He said the municipality was using a strong-arm tactic to demand the payment of rates.

Msunduzi’s acting city manager Nelisiwe Ngcobo was aware that the properties fell under the Department of Public Works (DPW), which was responsible for the timeous payment of rates but which had defaulted, said the DA’S Hannah Winkler and Rooksana Ahmed.

“The DPW and Msunduzi must follow the proper process going forward to ensure that schools are not affected by a breakdown in intergovernmental relations.

“The provincial DPW has acknowledged that they are in fact the account holders and not the affected schools.

“We cannot allow our schools to be used as cannon fodder when provincial departments fail to make payments,” they said.