AfriForum said it is preparing an urgent contempt of court application against the City of Tshwane. This follows reports that the metro cut electricity to schools in Centurion over unpaid rates bills.
The civil action group said the cuts defied a court order it won with affected schools earlier in 2026. The Pretoria High Court granted that order in July 2026.
“That the situation is now arising for the third time, and this so close to the year’s final exams, is untenable,” AfriForum said.
If a court upholds a contempt application against a municipality, the municipal manager or executive mayor may face a fine, jail time or both, MyBroadband reported.
AfriForum told MyBroadband that the metro’s legal division had told the electricity department to restore power to the schools immediately. The group was still meeting with its legal team on Friday, 9 October 2026.
“According to the school that contacted us, a team has just arrived to reconnect them, but they did not have the necessary link, so another team will have to come to reconnect,” AfriForum said.
The group said the court case may no longer be needed. It said it would wait to see if power returned on Friday. If not, it would prepare its application on Monday, 12 October 2026.
Alana Bailey, AfriForum’s head of cultural affairs, said the repeated cuts worried the organisation. “What concerns us is that this keeps on happening,” she said.
“The schools are very scared of getting involved in legal action with Tshwane, even though AfriForum carries all costs, which of course makes it easier for the Metro to intimidate them,” Bailey said.
The court order bans the City of Tshwane from cutting electricity to any public school in Gauteng. “City of Tshwane is interdicted and restrained from disconnecting the electricity supply to the premises of the first applicant, and all other Gauteng public schools,” the order said.
AfriForum said Tshwane first cut power to schools in May 2026 over unpaid property rates. Schools do not pay these rates themselves.
Property rates for public schools are paid by provincial departments. These include the Gauteng Department of Education and the Department of Infrastructure Development.
“The schools were also able to prove that their utility bills were up to date at the time their power was cut,” AfriForum said.
Bailey said teaching could not go on as usual at the affected schools. She said safety systems on the school grounds stopped working.
“Feeding schemes that should provide hot meals to the most vulnerable children could not continue, while supplies in refrigerators spoiled,” she said.
AfriForum gave legal help to Laerskool Wierdapark in its case against the City of Tshwane. The case also named Gauteng’s MEC for education and its MEC for infrastructure.
“The resulting court order determined that the municipality may no longer terminate the power supply to any schools due to the provincial government’s failure to pay property rates,” AfriForum said.
AfriForum said the metro cut power to schools again in June. It said power was restored immediately after the city was threatened with a contempt application.
Source: this article is based on reporting by MyBroadband. Image: MyBroadband. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.