Durban – Parents of pupils attending schools in the Imbali, Edendale and Sobantu areas of Pietermaritzburg found themselves having to send bottles of water to school after Msunduzi Municipality went on a massive disconnection drive at those institutions that owed money for rates.
The Mercury reported yesterday that the municipality said the disconnections to the water supply were carried out after the schools’ failure to honour previous payment arrangements.
The city said the following schools had been disconnected due to unpaid rates: Nyonithwele Secondary School, Georgetown High School, Siyamu Primary, Zamazulu Secondary School, Russell Junior Primary Khwezi Public Primary School, Sinamuva Primary School and Mfundwenhle Primary School.
A parent from Imbali Township, whose child attends Sinamuva Primary School, told of her worry and said she had sent her son to school with water.
“When my child returned to school yesterday(Tuesday), he told us that they had been instructed to bring their own water, ” the parent explained.
The move to shut water supply has been widely criticised by many people, with some contending that the municipality should have brought the matter of unpaid bills to Education MEC Mbali Frazer.
However, Msunduzi Municipality Speaker, Eunice Majola, defended the municipality’s decision to shut off water supply.
She stressed that the municipality as a sphere of government valued education and placed a high premium on learning.
“But the fact of the matter is that schools are given a norms and standards budget by the Department of Education which should be used to pay the municipality for services rendered,” the Speaker added.
She insisted that the municipality was well within its rights to disconnect the services, when clients were not paying for them.
The department was not immediately available for comment yesterday (Wednesday) what it would do to ensure the re-connection of schools whose services had been cut.
Earlier this week, the department told The Mercury that the district director, together with the principals of the affected schools, had met with the municipality and there were continuous engagements.