Herman Mashaba serves Curro Academy notice for 'not paying rates'

Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba says Curro Academy in Roodepoort has seven days to respond to a notice claiming that the school has broken the law by not paying for municipal services.

In a video posted on the city of Joburg's Twitter page, Mashaba said he was at the school on Tuesday to serve it with a notice for alleged nonpayment of rates and infringement of municipal bylaws. It was also suggested that the school may have failed to submit building plans.

"We are here to leave the notice because there is no senior management to receive this notice on behalf of the school with serious infringements of our laws," he said.

He claimed the school has not been paying for water, power, sewerage and refuse collection.

"Unfortunately we cannot allow any institution … to operate without complying with our legislative framework. How do we expect a big facility like this [an educational institution] to not be paying for services?"

But a letter from the school to parents, dated February 12 and shared on the Twitter thread, strongly denied Mashaba's allegations.

"Curro notes with concern certain media releases by the mayor and officials of the City of Johannesburg about Curro Academy Wilgeheuwel and suggestions of nonpayment of electricity, water and bulk services," the letter read.

"Since the opening of Curro Academy Wigeheuwel in 2017, more than R2m has been paid for bulk services and more than R600,000 monthly for water and electricity," the letter said.

The letter, signed by the executive head of the school, Oriol Morgan, added that the city had "stamped and approved" the school's building plans.

"Curro manages world-class education facilities and has a sterling record of contributing to education as well as to the city's finances."

The school threatened to take legal action against "any party who has misrepresented this factual position".

This is a developing story and will be updated with additional comment.