As more school communities are left powerless, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape requested that the MEC for COGHSTA, Bentley Vass, provides an update on negotiations between the provincial government and local municipalities about the potential disconnection of school premises.
Our request comes on the same day that parents of Hoërskool Hantam in Calvinia led a march to protest the lack of electricity at this school. The high school has not had power since November 2024 and the hostel was subsequently disconnected in March 2025. Other schools in the Northern Cape experienced the same fate.
Schools are bulk consumers of municipal water and electricity. It is clear that failure to pay their sizeable municipal accounts will make it difficult for municipalities to maintain the minimum collection rates needed to fund adequate service delivery, but disconnecting hostels and schools electricity, escalates the problem of basic service delivery across the basic education sector as well as municipal services.
The DA calls for urgent intervention through Cooperative Governance and Intergovernmental Relations management, in order to reach a compromise that won’t infringe on community’s basic human rights.
In addition to the letter to MEC Vass, the DA has reiterated our earlier request for the joint committees of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature to find a coordinated and cohesive strategy to resolve the long-standing issues of the non-payment of municipal accounts by provincial organs of state.
We cannot ignore the rapid escalation in non-payment of municipal accounts but we urge provincial government to remedy the crises that is unfolding in both basic municipal services, as well as basic educational services.