The department confirmed there is a grant backlog but declined to give details
- Lawyers representing hundreds of early childhood development centres in KwaZulu-Natal say the provincial education department is failing to pay the centres their subsidies.
- As a result, the centres cannot pay staff or feed children properly, they say.
- The Legal Resources Centre has written to the provincial and national education departments demanding confirmation by Friday 15 November that all outstanding payments will be made by the end of the month.
- The provincial education department confirmed the backlog but declined to give details.
Hundreds of early childhood development centres (ECDC) in KwaZulu-Natal have sent a lawyer's letter to the provincial department of education demanding their subsidies. The centres have been battling for months to get their subsidies of R17 per child per day.
Jurisdiction over the centres was moved from the department of social development to the department of education in 2022.
At the end of October the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), representing the Friends of South Africa ECD Forum and the KwaZulu-Natal ECD Alliance, wrote to the KZN Department of Education (KZNDoE), the national Minister of Basic Education, the provincial and national treasury, complaining that centres had been paid irregularly since 2023 and that many were still owed money.
The Forum has 500 members and the Alliance 600.
The LRC said the two organisations had complained several times and the KZN education department had acknowledged the problem and even apologised, but it had not given reasons or fixed the problem.
As a result of the failure to pay, principals of some ECD centres had been threatened by staff who had not been paid their salaries, the LRC said. Some principals had taken out personal loans to feed the children, and some had asked parents to send food.
"In cases where the parents are unemployed and living on social grants this is often not feasible, leaving many children to go hungry," the LRC said.
"The exchange of correspondence demonstrates that the KZNDoE is aware that ECD centres are operating without receiving the stipends that are due to them. Despite this, the KZN DoE has failed to offer substantiated reasons for the non-payment."
On behalf of the two organisations, the LRC asked for a list of all ECD centres which had not been fully paid, and confirmation by 15 November that outstanding money would be paid by 29 November. They also demanded reasons for the non-payment and steps which would be taken to make sure it did not happen again.
LRC attorney Sheniece Linderboom told GroundUp the LRC had not yet received a response.
Zandile Hlongwa says she has been running an early childhood development centre in Umkomazi, south of Durban, for 12 years. She says the number of children in her centre has decreased from over 100 in 2023 to 39, because she has had to increase her fees in the absence of a regular stipend.
She said the department still owes her two months' stipends.
"Since we have been moved to the department of education, I have been struggling to pay teachers and to stick to the menu, because I couldn't afford to buy groceries ... I just buy something which is enough to last for the whole month.
"The parents didn't understand when I increased the fees from R200 to R300. I now have only two teachers at the centre because the number of children has decreased after I increased the school fees," said Hlongwa.
Mandulo Khuzwayo, who runs a centre in KwaNdengezi, west of Durban, said the department of education pays a grant of R17 per day per child, but when payments are late they sometimes have to borrow from loan sharks to keep operating and to pay staff.
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"It is not easy to survive under these financial challenges. We are facing non-payment from the department of education. From the R17 grant per child, 40% goes to nutrition and the 40% teachers' stipend and 20% for the administration and the municipal bills," said Khuzwayo.
"I am forced to give them whatever food is available. I can't send them home because some of them come from disadvantaged homes where they can't afford to have a proper breakfast."
KwaZulu-Natal department of education spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said, "We can confirm that we started paying ECD centres. But from where I am sitting I can't tell you how many have been paid and how many still need to be paid, because it's an on going process."
Linderboom said the LRC was preparing for litigation if necessary.
