For the 910 pupils at Germiston South Primary School, Thursday and part of Friday were spent in the dark.
“It is very difficult to educate children when we have no electricity,” said the school’s principal, Lanette Fouché.
“And this is all due to the municipality’s non-existent accounting system.”
Fouché told the GCN that, on Thursday, two metro employees came to the school and told them they were going to turn off the electricity for non-payment.
“We showed them our proof of payment, but they went ahead and switched off the electricity,” Fouché said.
“This is disgusting.
“How can you turn off the electricity at a school where we are in the process of educating children?”
The school’s governing body chairman, Thabani Ndlovu, echoed Fouché’s sentiments.
“I have received countless calls from angry parents who are blaming the school and the governing body when, in fact, this is a metro problem,” he said.
“We have paid our bill and, in fact, we always pay on an interim reading, as the metro never actually bothers to come and read the meter, even though it is in perfect working order.”
This is not the first time metro employees have arrived at the school to switch off the electricity.
They came once before, claiming that the school hadn’t paid, but when the proof of payment was produced they left without turning off the electricity.
Fouché said she is meticulous and methodical about making sure the bills are paid.
“I don’t understand how some people can run up huge bills with the municipality while those of us who do pay get disconnected,” she said.
She added that she also wants to know what the metro does with the rates and taxes money paid to them, because Germiston is such a filthy city.
“It doesn’t look like our money gets spent on making the city any better,” she said.
“I am not sure how the metro thinks a school can operate without power.”
The problem of wrongful disconnection of electricity is not, however, confined to this case.
The GCN has received a number of complaints about arrogant metro employees coming along and turning off power without notice.
Recently a Lambton resident had her power cut even though she had paid.
“I had paid one day late, but I had still paid,” she said.
“They just came along, gave me a disconnection notice and turned off the power, even though I had proof.
“Apparently their system had crashed and they couldn’t allocate payments.”
Many other residents have told the GCN similar stories and it appears that the metro is not doing anything about the situation.
