Private school group Curro is fighting the City of Johannesburg in two legal cases as it disputes irregular billing and a decision by the city that all private schools must pay rates as if they were businesses.
The decision by Johannesburg will increase private school rates bills, even non-profit schools, at least tenfold.
Curro Holdings, which is being spun out of investment holding company PSG, has 70,519 learners and employs just over 3,900 teachers. It owns 77 campuses with 181 schools in SA, and one in Botswana.
On Thursday, it reported that half-year profit to end-June rose 32% to R169m.
The rezoning of Curro schools in Johannesburg in 2019 to businesses has increased its overall municipal rates bill by almost 60% since 2019.
Curro first highlighted the very high rates it faced in 2020, when rates bills rose 37% in one year. The steep increases raise the prospect of the closure of independent schools, some that are non-profit or in poorer areas, Business Day’s sister publication the Financial Mail has reported.
CEO Andries Greyling said it had two court matters against the City of Johannesburg.
Schools business rates
One is to challenge the decision to charge all schools business rates. The other case disputes “abnormal” invoices backdated as far back as 10 years ago for municipal rates and taxes that “nobody knows anything about”. For 18 months, the school group and the city tried to agree on an amount owing and “resolve” the impasse “as friends”.
Schools have water and electricity meters, so they can vouch for what is owed. In some cases, there may be an outstanding amount from years before, Greyling said.
After agreeing on a figure, Curro asked the city to provide it in writing. Greyling said: “We waited and waited and nothing happened.” So, it has gone to court to have a reasonable amount decided on.
Disputes in Johannesburg over unexpected and unusually large bills have made headlines for more than a decade. The billing crisis compounds problems for residents, businesses and property owners in a city that is losing its status as the economic hub of the continent.
In June, the Johannesburg SPCA launched a fundraising campaign after a water leak was discovered on its property and it received a R545,203 bill. In 2013, ANC headquarters Luthuli House received an erroneous rates and taxes bill.
In August 2017, former mayor Herman Mashaba and his head of billing said in a statement that by March the following year, “we will be talking about the billing crisis as if it’s history”.
Greyling said Curro wants to pay outstanding amounts, but cannot pay an abnormal figure.
He was speaking shortly after the company issued its half-year results, which showed it had written off about R76m in school fees as pandemic-hit parents failed to keep up with payments.
It took a harder line on bad debt this year and asked children to leave schools when fees had not been paid for more than six months. It predicts 4% of school fees are unpaid.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.