Following the Operation Buya Mthetho visit to the school on 12 February, CoJ has made it known that Curro Wilgeheuwel in fact owes millions of Rands to the City.
Since it was launched in early 2018, Operation Buya Mthetho, meaning ‘bring back the law’, has managed to get back tens if not hundreds of millions of Rands owed to the City of Johannebsurg by non-compliant developers, land owners or businesses.
Led by Mayor Herman Mashaba and several other City officials, the latest visit to Roodepoort has brought to light some astounding revelations regarding the Curro school in Wilgeheuwel.
At the time of the visit to the school by the Mayor and a number of city officials, the City of Joburg’s official Twitter account simply stated that the “School has not submitted the building plans and they are illegally connected to City Services”.
Our third location is Curro Academy in Mozelle Close, Roodepoort. It is being said that the School has not submitted the building plans and they are illegally connected to #CityServices ^LM pic.twitter.com/WGAkP58VsF
— City of Joburg (@CityofJoburgZA) February 12, 2019
Mayor @HermanMashaba tells the media about the 7 days notice been given to the school. #BuyaMthetho ^LM pic.twitter.com/P54YQPGjGh
— City of Joburg (@CityofJoburgZA) February 12, 2019
However, further investigations into what the school owes to the City have revealed the extent to which the school is in arrears regarding utilities. According to Lufuno Mashau, Director of Operation Buya Mthetho’s Revenue Enhancement, they estimate that the school owes about R8 million to the City of Joburg.
Regarding the building plan approval issue, and how the school could finish construction without full plan approval, he shed some more light on the issue. “Further investigations are under way,” he said. “The school has received no occupation certificate from the City.” What this essentially means is that without an occupation certificate the structure built by the school is illegal, according to Mashau.
When the notice was served by the Mayor on 12 February, the school had seven days to come to a resolution with the City on how to resolve the issues regarding funds in arrears as well as the occupation certificate issue. Mashau has also confirmed that the City and the school are currently in talks to resolve the issue and to reach an amicable solution.
“An amicable solution is our ultimate goal, as we don’t want to shut operations down,” he said. “We want development to happen within the city, as long as the developments take place with the correct documentation.”
At the time of writing, a response from Curro Wilgeheuwel regarding the issue had not yet been received.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at northside@caxton.co.za  (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
For free daily local news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websitesÂ
