Education department fails to pay water and electricity bills: parents shut down school in protest

Parents and learners protested outside Copesville Secondary School where there is no water or electricity because the municipality has not been paid by the education department. Photo: Loyiso Dyongman

Parents of learners at Copesville Secondary School in Pietermaritzburg have shut the school down since Monday in protest because the school’s water and electricity have been cut by the municipality.

The parents say this is a violation of human rights and the education department has failed their children by not paying its bills to the Msunduzi Municipality. Learners had been bringing water in bottles to school and leaving school mid-morning.

Activist Mxolisi Nxumalo said parents would continue with the shutdown until the matter is resolved.

“Teachers and learners can’t even use toilets as there is no water. We are concerned how they are going to write final exams, especially the Grade 12 learners.”

Thulisile Mthimkhulu, parent of a learner at the school, said it is not understandable for a government school to be without water. “How did all this come about? This is not the first time that the school has had this problem of water disconnection by the municipality. Someone has to account for this,” said Mthimkhulu.

A learner at the school, Nomalungelo Ngcobo, said exams were approaching. “Things are getting worse, some children are slow learners and they need teachers every day to guide them. But we can’t have that when school is dismissed at 11am. The situation is affecting us which will lead to poor results at the end of the year. Who is to blame in this kind of situation?” said Nomalungelo.

Head of communications at the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education Muzi Mahlambi urged parents to work with the department to resolve the problem.

“As the department we are working towards resolving this matter and we urge parents not to tell learners not to come to school. We are approaching final exams now and kids staying at home will disturb all the attempts we make to ensure that kids are ready to write,” said Mahlambi.

In 2019, learners at the school locked teachers inside the school premises while they protested outside the school, demanding that electricity and water be restored after a cut. At the time the principal said he had written more than 15 letters to the education department but they did not assist.

Attempts by GroundUp to get comment from the School Governing Body were unsuccessful as calls and messages were not answered