An urgent court ruling has ordered the City of Tshwane to restore power to schools that were cut off last week, as part of the #TshwaneYaTima to collect outstanding debt owed to the municipality.
Earlier this week, Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya and her team, who have also pulled the plug on police stations, Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital and Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre in the past, visited Jan Moerdyk Properties, Regspersoon Kingswood in Weavind Park, the Yonder Hill Residential Complex in Rietvalleirand and Eldan Auto Body in Pretoria West to collect outstanding payments.
AfriForum won case after Laerskool Wierdapark sued
AfriForum’s head of cultural affairs, Alana Bailey, has welcomed the court order instructing the city to restore the electricity supply of all schools that were cut off due to non-payment of their property rates.
“Laerskool Wierdapark and AfriForum approached the court with an urgent application to demand the restoration of power, after it had become known that several schools had been affected, literally leaving them in the dark this week. This matter was heard in the court in Pretoria on Tuesday,” she said.
“The bills for services such as electricity and water supply are the responsibility of the schools’ governing bodies.
“However, the property rates must be paid by the authorities, which currently does not seem to be happening in Tshwane.
“AfriForum had won a similar case against this metro in 2009, and was therefore ready to defend schools’ access to services for which they pay once again,” she added.
Bailey said teaching at the affected schools could not take place as usual. Safety systems on the premises were not working and feeding schemes that should provide hot meals to the most vulnerable children could not continue, while supplies in refrigerators spoiled.
Teaching at affected school couldn’t take place
“Where schools have generators, only the most essential services can be provided, and this at an extremely high cost due to the current diesel price.
“Even this limited supply of electricity was therefore not sustainable.”
Bailey said the cost order issued to the city was also welcomed and confirmed the unlawful nature of its actions.
DA Gauteng spokesperson for health Madeleine Hicklin said Moya’s aggressive revenue collection initiative has also led to electricity disruptions, causing uncertainty and placing unnecessary pressure on operations at the forensic pathology laboratory in Tshwane.
“The DA has discovered that the main forensic laboratory, where autopsies and post-mortems are performed to determine the cause of death, has experienced regular power outages over the past two months, creating a sense of uncertainty and leaving residents struggling for essential forensic services.”
Hicklin said the power is regularly disconnected, despite confirmation from Tshwane’s finance department that the facility has no outstanding debt and operates on a prepaid meter.
Moya’s debt drive also hit hospitals, prisons and police
“These disruptions have reportedly forced the facility to rely on generators to maintain full operations.
“While there is currently no backlog in post-mortems, concerns persist over the unpredictability of electricity interruptions at the facility.
“The uncertainty is said to be placing pressure on operations and creating a knock-on effect, with funeral parlours reportedly being urged to collect bodies promptly after examinations due to fears of further disconnections by the city,” Hicklin added.
The forensic pathology services cannot be held to ransom by a revenue collection initiative that is flawed at best, but can potentially cripple an invaluable legal and investigative system needed by the citizens of Tshwane, she said.
