THE Windhoek municipality has cut water and electricity supplies to A Shipena Secondary School in Katutura due to outstanding water bills.
The school is one of the nine institutions in Windhoek which were threatened with service cuts if their collective utilities bill of N$55 million was not settled.
The principal of A Shipena Secondary School, Moses Haufiku, yesterday confirmed that electricity and water supplies at the school had been discontinued.
The school has been without water and electricity for over a day.
“We are at least saved when it comes to water because we have a storage facility that has enough water to sustain us for a couple more days,” he added.
Haufiku said he does not know how much the school owes the municipality, as the school is not responsible for paying the bills.
“I cannot confirm how much we owe the City of Windhoek because it is not our obligation to pay the water and electricity bills, but that of the government,” he stated. Although the disruption to the water supply hardly affects the pupils because they are currently writing examinations, it is a problem for the administrative staff.
“There is no teaching going on right now because the pupils are sitting for examinations, so they have not been affected. But earlier, we had a few parents coming to the school to pick up their children’s report cards, and we could not print them because everything is off,” he explained.
Haufiku said interventions have been made to ensure that the pupils staying at the hostel, who have been notified about the situation, remained as calm as possible during the examinations.
“In terms of what they are eating, we have made arrangements with hostels at other schools. We send our cooks to Jan Möhr Secondary School to prepare the food for the children there,” he added.
He noted that the school was fortunate to have received solar lamps from Germany through exchange programmes, and they are using these to provide light for the students to study in the evenings.
“We are not really that stressed about the issue right now. It will only become a problem when we are not told how long it will take because having the cooks drive to others schools and back will soon become a hassle,” Haufiku continued.
Paul du Plessis, the principal of Dagbreek Special School, said he saw a WhatsApp message which identified nine schools, including his, that would not have electricity and water. But so far, services to his school have luckily not been cut.
“Our water is still running as good as it was, and the electricity is still on,” he stated. Speaking to , spokesperson of the Windhoek municipality, Lydia Amutenya confirmed that the electricity supply to a number of schools would be cut because of the outstanding fees.
“It should, however, be noted that the N$55 million is the total due for about 186 schools, and the schools that have been listed and had supplies cut off are the ones with the highest amounts,” she added.
She said the schools have been notified of the disconnections.
“Yes, they were informed through the ministry’s directorate of the Khomas region,” she noted.
Amutenya added that services to the listed schools which claimed that they still have water and electricity will eventually be disconnected until the bill is paid.
Education executive director Sanet Steenkamp said in efforts to get the services reconnected, the ministry held a discussion with the City of Windhoek on the matter yesterday where an agreement was reached and an amount of N$30 million was to be effected by 8 August.
“Equally, the remaining N$25 million will be settled installments of N$5 million, additional to the ongoing monthly invoices,” she said. She said the agreement will see the reconnection of services at the affected schools today, ensuring that teaching and learning at schools will continue uninterrupted as a result of the repayment agreement reached between the ministry and City of Windhoek.
