Note to editors: Please find attached English soundbite by Sergio Isa Dos Santos MPL.
The Gauteng Department of Education’s (GDE) admission that rising municipal tariffs outpace school allocations confirms the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) longstanding warning that the department’s insufficient school allocations are negatively affecting schools. Many schools are struggling to maintain computer labs, ensure electricity, keep water taps functional, and protect students and staff from serious health and safety hazards.
During yesterday’s media briefing on schools’ electricity, water disruptions and the decentralisation model, the Gauteng MEC for Education, Lebogang Maile, admitted that there was a “misalignment” between rising municipal tariffs and the allocations provided to schools.
It is unacceptable that it took the department so long to realise that expecting school to absorb escalating electricity, water, sanitation and operational costs without adequate support was absurd at best and reckless at worst.
The DA has repeatedly warned that schools should not pay the price for government failures, financial mismanagement, poor planning and billing disputes. Despite these warnings and the knowledge that schools faced inherited debt, incorrect tariffs, overbilling and rising municipal costs, the department still shifted the Section 21(1)(d) function onto schools without proper funding, support, or consultation. This proves once again that Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s government places learners’ education last on its agenda.
The no-fee paying and vulnerable schools have been hit the hardest, forcing their School Governing Bodies (SGB) to focus on financial survival and attempt to avert municipal disconnections instead of focusing on teaching and learning.
The DA reiterates its call for intergovernmental cooperation of the GDE, municipalities, and other stakeholders to prevent schools from reaching a crisis point.
The DA is the only party that would have acted decisively to stop this crisis. Under a DA-led Gauteng Provincial Government, we will enforce cooperation of the department, municipalities, and all relevant stakeholders to ensure that no learner’s education suffers because of government failures and that teaching and learning continue uninterrupted in every school.