By Levy Masiteng
The High Court in Pretoria has ordered the City of Tshwane to restore electricity to schools that were cut off over unpaid property rates.
Laerskool Wierdapark and AfriForum brought the urgent application this week.
The matter was heard on Tuesday.
AfriForum said several schools were disconnected, despite having paid their electricity accounts in full. It said school governing bodies are responsible for paying for services such as electricity and water, while property rates are meant to be dealt with by “the authorities”.
ALSO READ: ConCourt told parliament ignored NHI objections
AfriForum’s head of cultural affairs, Alana Bailey, said the disconnections had disrupted teaching and placed learners and staff at risk.
“It is unfair that learners and staff’s rights to have access to quality education, safety, and even the provision of their basic needs are being violated due to the authorities’ maladministration. At the affected schools, teaching could not take place as usual. Systems that should protect safety on the premises were not working. Feeding schemes that should provide hot meals to the most vulnerable children could not continue, while supplies in refrigerators spoiled,” Bailey said.
She said the order provided urgent relief to schools that should never have been drawn into a dispute over debts they were not responsible for.
“AfriForum is grateful for the speedy relief that the court order provides to the affected schools and trusts that the Metro will consult with the relevant authorities in the future, instead of trying to hold schools accountable for outstanding debts that they are not responsible for. Not only does this punish the innocent, but it also jeopardises learners’ right to quality education and safety, which is completely unacceptable,” Bailey said.
The Freedom Front Plus said Wierdapark Primary School had already been affected and warned that more schools in Pretoria could have faced the same fate without intervention.
“This step is reckless and inhumane, as schools themselves are not responsible for paying property rates. The responsibility rests on the shoulders of the Department of Education,” the party said.
The VF Plus said the crisis pointed to “a pattern of poor coordination and a lack of accountability” between the metro and the provincial government.
The Tshwane dispute has heightened scrutiny of a separate electricity crisis affecting schools in Ekurhuleni, where the Democratic Alliance in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature has accused the Gauteng Department of Education of misleading the public about school electricity cuts.
The DA said the department had publicly claimed that no schools had been disconnected, but that an official reply by Gauteng Education MEC Lebogang Maile showed otherwise.
According to the DA, three schools experienced electricity disconnections in 2024, 31 schools were affected in 2025, and 16 schools had already been affected in the first four months of 2026.
ALSO READ: Hawks’ Flynn says R200 million Port Shepstone cocaine theft was “by design”
The party said schools including Bedfordview High, Laerskool Welgedacht and Laerskool Morewag had been without electricity for extended periods.
“This is not a mistake — it is a deliberate attempt to hide the department’s financial and administrative failures while learners sit in dark classrooms,” the DA said.
DA Gauteng education spokesperson Michael Waters said the party would not allow the department to minimise the scale of the problem.
“Parents and learners deserve the truth. The DA will not allow the department to keep covering up this crisis,” Waters said.
