Delft students learn without electricity as school owes Eskom

A primary school in Delft, Cape Town owed Eskom about R39,000 and has been without electricity since February. The education department is trying to assist the school but this is not the first time it has been bailed out. 

Vergenoegd Primary is a non-fee-paying school, which means it is allocated money by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED). But the school is responsible for using that money, including ordering stationery and textbooks, paying water and electricity accounts and undertaking maintenance.

The school has more than 1,500 learners.

Despite attempts to make payment arrangements with Eskom, a teacher who asked not to be named said the power utility had been unwilling to assist the school.

He said the staff were shocked when Eskom cut the school’s power. He said the school had discovered that its bursar office missed payments from August 2023.

By the time the fault was discovered, Eskom said they had accumulated arrears of about R28,000, which the school could not afford to pay.

On March 9, the school held a food fair on its premises to raise emergency funds to pay their outstanding bill. They raised about R20,500. It was apparently paid to Eskom the next week.

According to the teacher, the school contacted Eskom again after making the payment to ask that their electricity be reconnected, but Eskom refused because the school was still many thousands of rand in arrears.

In email correspondence between Eskom and the school, which GroundUp has seen, Eskom confirmed it had received the school’s payment of R20,500. But since the school’s account was already R39,000 in arrears, it needed to pay at least R15,000 of the R18,500 that it owes, as well as a R2,070 reconnection fee before electricity could be reconnected.

He said the school was still investigating why its bursar’s office had failed to pay the power utility.

WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the district office was aware of the issues and was working with the school to resolve this matter.

Hammond said Vergenoegd Primary received more than R1.8m in 2023 to cover expenses including municipal services and utility accounts. “As a section 21 school, it receives the total allocation to manage accordingly,” she said.

Hammond said that in the last two years, the WCED had assisted the school with nearly R480,000 to pay its outstanding municipal debt.

Eskom spokesperson Kyle Cookson said that the power utility had notified the department’s district office before disconnecting the school on February 27.

Cookson confirmed that the school remained without electricity.

“The school ran up arrears and made a short payment on March 12 after they were disconnected. This payment was not sufficient to cover the arrears as well as the reconnection fee,” he said.

Cookson did not comment on the allegation that Eskom was not willing to agree to a payment arrangement with the school.

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