Msunduzi municipality has come under fire for disconnecting water and electricity at schools two weeks before matric trials.
The cash-strapped municipality, which is owed R23m by 23 schools, appointed 14 contractors to carry out the disconnections on Monday and Tuesday.
KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson for the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa, Thirona Moodley, said the disconnection of water and schools was “unconstitutional”.
“It deprives our learners from attending school. We know access to basic education is a constitutional right. Obviously, learners cannot attend school if there is no water and there is no indication when the water will be reconnected,” said Moodley.
She called on the department to urgently intervene as matric pupils are about to write trials ahead of their final examination in 100 days.
The disconnections have led to some of the school shutting their doors earlier than usual.
Acting city manager Sabelo Hlela said the schools were notified about the council’s intention to disconnect.
At Sukuma Comprehensive High School, which is R3.2m in the red, learners were washing their school uniforms with water from storage tanks. The school, in Imbali township, also has a boarding establishment.
The disconnection comes less than 100 days before the start of the national senior certificate examinations and two weeks before trials.
School governing body chairperson at Georgetown High School, Sonani Ndimande, said: “What is happening here is the children are bearing the brunt. We have only two JoJo tanks to service the school.”
Ndimande, who was at the school at the time of the disconnection, said his attempts to negotiate with the contractors were unsuccessful.
“They were just not hearing anything about our appeals and said they were just doing their jobs,” said Ndimande.
He said this was not the first time the department had faced such a challenge.
“We need a long-lasting solution because our school is a no-fee school. Most of the parents here are reliant on the R350 social relief grant,” he said.
He said the municipality came up with the outstanding debt based on estimates.
“As you can see on the same road there is normally water gushing down. What if someone had tampered with the meter? It's impossible between the time of winter school holidays to now we have racked up a bill of R38,000,” he said.
He said informal dwellings had sprouted up across the road from the school.
“The municipality should do an audit of those homes and see where they are connected,” said Ndimande.
A schoolteacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the challenge had made working at the school difficult.
“It’s obviously difficult to ignore the call of nature. It’s even worse for girls who now run the risk of catching infections. Some of the security personnel have resorted to taking turns to fetch buckets of water to help ease the situation,” said the teacher.
With more than 1,300 learners, the school is now only open for matric pupils.
The education department did not respond to queries.
