Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has called on municipalities to suspend services to schools that have not settled their huge outstanding payments. Public schools in the province currently owe local municipalities more than R262 million.
The services included water, waste management as well as electricity supply.
About 1,601 schools are responsible for the outstanding debt; non-Section 21 schools owe R69 million, while Section 21 schools have accumulated R192 million in overdue balances.
This information was revealed by the MEC for Education, Matome Chiloane, in a written reply to questions posed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL).
Section 21 schools are normally managed by School Governing Bodies (SGB) which handle payments for utilities. And non-section 21 schools are managed by the department itself.
However, Lesufi urged towns to avoid cutting off services during test times because doing so could have a detrimental effect on students' academic performance.
Municipalities across Gauteng are owed millions by customers, including various government departments, for utilities provided by entities like Eskom, City Power, and Rand Water.
City Power has been cutting power to non-paying customers and disconnecting illegal connections in a bid to bring in revenue and halt the theft of power that strains the national grid.
The City of Tshwane, through the Tshwane Ya Tima initiative, has also cut electricity supply to some areas in the city due to non-payment.
The debt has sparked criticism from political parties like the DA with MPL Michael Waters accusing the department of failing to act while schools racked up the huge deficits, given the financial crisis most municipalities are facing.
“It is worrying how schools can amass such debt. This suggests inadequate monitoring of these schools by the department and poor financial management within our schools,” Waters said in a statement.
The department was reportedly working towards settling the debt.
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