NOORDWESTER – LICHTENBURG - The North West Department of Education is pleased to announce that electricity has been restored to five schools and two offices in the Ditsobotla Local Municipality as of Monday, 28 July.
In the efforts of salvaging the situation in the area, the Superintendent-General of the Department of Education, Mr Lengane Bogatsu, met with representatives from affected schools of Ditsobotla Local Education Office, the Department of Public Works, and the Ditsobotla Local Municipality to discuss the recent electricity cut-offs in certain schools.
The affected schools and offices were Laerskool Lichtenburg, Laerskool Burgersdorp, Lichtenburg English Secondary School, Yusuf Dadoo Memorial Primary and Shukran Primary School, as well as Lichtenburg Circuit Office and Local Education Offices.
The meeting successfully identified the challenges which caused the problem and all the affected departments committed in addressing the outstanding backlogs with Ditsobotla Local Municipality.
The Superintendent-General, Lengane Bogatsu, emphasised that electricity disconnection can have a negative impact on the results of the affected schools. “As the Department, we were extremely concerned with the electricity disconnection experienced by the five schools and the offices. We were shocked to learn that some of the schools that were disconnected didn’t owe the municipality.”
The electricity disconnection affected schools negatively as it also exposed them to burglary activities from criminals.
Not all five school’s electricity was restored by Thursday morning when schools opened. Some relied on generator(s) to keep vital places like the administration offices going, but it put financial strain on the school(s).
It came to light that the schools are in fact up to date with electricity payments, but that there might be some other issues - these will be addressed as soon as possible.
The schools commented that they were not content with the procedure followed to cut electricity.
