Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education owes municipalities across the province R468 million for services.
This was revealed in replies to parliamentary questions by the DA. The replies showed government departments owed different municipalities close to R800m for rates and services.
It further revealed the Department of Education was the biggest culprit and owed many municipalities, including Mpofana (Mooi River) and Msunduzi, that are barely staying afloat. It owes about 20 municipalities.
EThekwini Municipality, based on the replies, is owed more than R370m.
EThekwini has in response to the outstanding debt implemented harsh measures to recover money owed including disconnecting schools and has warned while it will engage with the department over the debt, it will not stop disconnecting schools if they failed to pay or made arrangements to pay and dishonoured them.
Msunduzi Municipality has also used hardball tactics by disconnecting schools in an effort to extract payment from the department.
The DA said the replies showed that government departments owed municipalities in the province a staggering R792m for basic services. The figure relates to the period April 2021 to January 2022 and include payments for services including water, electricity, sewage and refuse.
“According to the replies the biggest culprit is KZN’s Education Department, with a monumental R468m outstanding,” the party said.
Other contributors are Public Works with R255m outstanding, Human Settlements with R55m and Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA) with R8m outstanding.
According to the replies, KZN’s worst affected municipalities include eThekwini which is owed R573m, but recent reports from the municipality showed that the government debt owed could be as high as R1 billion.
Other affected municipalities include Msunduzi which is owed R86.9m and Zululand Municipality which is owed R46.8m.
“That municipalities are not enforcing government departments’ payments, thereby deterring revenue collection, is ultimately affecting service delivery. This is even more relevant in municipalities under provincial administration which should have new strategies to enforce timely payments and to deal harshly with those who do not comply,” the DA said.
The report also expressed concerns that the debt was not new. Age analysing of the debt showed it was between 150 days and 10 months old – in contravention of government regulations that departments should pay their service providers within 30 days.
Different departments said they were in the process of addressing the issue of debt. KZN Education Department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said some of the debt was because of theft by communities via illegal connections. “We are engulfed by illegal connections. We can go to these schools on a Sunday, you will see how meters (water and electricity) are running when there is no one at school.”