Litigation: Private school group tackles city on two fronts

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. A Business Day report says the decision by Johannesburg will increase private school rates bills, even non-profit schools, at least tenfold. 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. CEO Andries Greyling said it had two court matters against the City of Johannesburg. 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 to resolve the impasse. 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.