WATCH | Maile says Gauteng schools owe municipalities nearly R584m

Gauteng schools owed municipalities nearly R584m for electricity and water usage, and property rates, as of March, according to Gauteng MEC for education Lebogang Maile.

Maile, who was briefing the media on Sunday on water and electricity issues affecting schools in the province, said the total amount owed to Gauteng municipalities for accounts older than 60 days stood at R583.9m.

The City of Johannesburg was owed the largest amount, R390m.

In addition, Gauteng schools also owed power utility Eskom R6.32m, he added.

“Municipal revenue is essential for administrative operations, including the payment of salaries for municipal staff,” said Maile. “Municipalities across the country are facing a severe revenue crisis due to poor cash flow and rising debt.

“Recognising this, it is important that municipal governments do not lose sight of the high cost of interrupting teaching and learning. Schools are, and must, remain a public good.”

With regard to rates, he said the City of Ekurhuleni was owed R75m, the City of Tshwane R51m and Emfuleni Local Municipality R36.3m.

Maile said that although schools were deemed to owe nearly R6m to Eskom, R4.38m of that amount was in dispute.

“Municipalities in Gauteng have increasingly been accused of overcharging public schools through incorrect billing, inflated tariffs, estimated readings, historical debt transfers and unlawful charges on municipal accounts.

“Many schools report being billed on estimated consumption instead of actual meter readings. This often results in excessively high electricity and water accounts that do not reflect real usage. Schools sometimes receive sudden, inflated bills without proper explanations or verification processes,” he said.

Many schools report being billed on estimated consumption instead of actual meter readings. This often results in excessively high electricity and water accounts that do not reflect real usage.

—  Gauteng MEC for education Lebogang Maile.

While declaring that the education department and municipalities would work together to address the debt issues, Maile dismissed comments made by Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya about continuing to cut off services to institutions that owed money to the city.

This follows a high court ruling ordering Tshwane to immediately restore electricity to schools that had been disconnected due to unpaid property rates.

“We shouldn’t have mayors making reckless and populist statements because they want votes and want to be seen to be working because it’s an election. Ordinarily, there shouldn’t be any school that is switched off. However, that doesn’t mean schools should not pay for electricity and water.

“That is why we are making provisions. We spend R2bn on water alone in schools. The issue is not the budget. The department can afford to pay for water and electricity in schools. It’s other issues,” said Maile.

Sowetan