School principals of about 492 affected schools met mayor Zandile Gumede on Friday.
Principals who spoke to the Daily News on Monday said their electricity was already disconnected when they met the mayor and were struggling to continue with classes.
Some said they were unaware of the meeting with the mayor and were still pondering how they would get the money to pay their arrears.
The issue was raised during the city’s executive committee (Exco) and full council meetings last week where the intention to disconnect electricity was announced as the municipality could not continue to cope with the debt.
Opposition parties said on Monday they were busy compiling a list of the affected schools to establish how many had been disconnected.
The Daily News has learnt that more than 35 schools in Chatsworth alone were disconnected.
While Mthunzi Gumede, the mayor’s spokesperson, denied there were disconnections, schools such as uMlazi ComTech High, Swelihle High School in uMlazi, Excelsior Primary in Mobeni Heights and Parkview Secondary School in Chatsworth were operating without electricity after it was disconnected last week.
Excelsior Primary School wrote to parents on Friday and informed them that the electricity was disconnected last Tuesday and that water supply cuts were expected to follow.
The school urged parents to pay the year’s school fees as soon as possible, otherwise the school would be closed.
The Daily News reported last week that parents of pupils at uMlazi ComTech High School were questioning the electricity disconnections when school fees for boarding pupils were R17500 and R2500 for day pupils.
Some schools that fall under the uMlazi district allegedly owed the municipality between R1.9m and R3.9m.
Zandile Sithole, Swelihle High School principal, inherited an electricity bill of R355000 and a water debt of R250000 when she took over last year.
Struggling to survive on an annual budget of R107000 received from the Education Department as a section 21 school, Sithole is expected to pay at least R5000 a month towards the electricity debt, which amounts to R60000 a year from her budget.
Since the electricity disconnection, the school had not been able to conduct computer and cooking classes and was forced to outsource printing and photocopying.
Mdu Nkosi, of the IFP, urged principals to come forward and tell the truth about what was happening.
He said the principals were being intimidated and bullied about whether they were getting the norms and standards allocations on time to run schools.
“The problem is almost all government departments are failing to pay their service providers.
“Some are eagerly waiting for the new financial year to kick in. Some ran out of funds as early as last November,” Nkosi said.
He said they were compiling a list of affected schools to present to the education portfolio at the legislature this Friday.
Rishigen Viranna, the DA education spokesperson, said they were finalising the list of affected schools and wanted Education MEC Mthandeni Dlungwana to account for this.
“It is unacceptable that his department had allowed this to happen.
“It is his responsibility to make sure that the department is functional. The teachers and pupils are left to suffer because of the lack of functionality of his department.”
Daily News