South Africa: The KwaZulu-Natal education department does not pay for daycare centers

The department confirmed there is a backlog in grant funding, but declined to provide details

• Lawyers representing hundreds of early childhood development centers in KwaZulu-Natal say the provincial education department is failing to pay the centers their subsidies.
• As a result, the centers cannot pay staff or feed children properly, they say.
• The Legal Resources Center has written to provincial and national education departments requesting confirmation by Friday, November 15 that all outstanding payments will be cleared by the end of the month.
• The provincial education department confirmed the backlog but declined to provide details.

Hundreds of early childhood development centers (ECDC) in KwaZulu-Natal have sent a lawyer’s letter to the provincial ministry of education demanding their subsidies. The centers have been fighting for months to get their subsidies of R17 per child per day.

Jurisdiction over the centers was moved from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Education in 2022.

At the end of October, the Legal Resources Center (LRC), which represents 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, which complained that centers had been paid irregularly since 2023 and many were still owed money.

The Forum has 500 members and the Alliance 600.

The LRC said the two organizations had complained several times and the KZN education department had acknowledged the problem and even apologized, but had not provided reasons or resolved the problem.

As a result of the lack of payment, the directors of some ECD centers had been threatened by staff who had not received their salaries, the LRC said. Some directors had taken out personal loans to feed the children, and some had asked parents to send food.

“In cases where parents are unemployed and living on social benefits, this is often not feasible, leaving many children hungry,” the LRC said.

“The correspondence shows that the KZNDoE is aware that ECD centers are operating without receiving the allowances due to them. Despite this, the KZN DoE has failed to provide substantiated reasons for the non-payment.”

On behalf of the two organizations, the LRC requested a list of all ECD centers that had not been paid in full, and confirmation by November 15 that outstanding funds would be paid by November 29. They also demanded reasons for the non-payment and steps that would be taken to ensure it did not happen again.

LRC attorney Sheniece Linderboom told GroundUp that the LRC has not yet received a response.

Zandile Hlongwa says she has been running an early childhood development center in Umkomazi, south of Durban, for 12 years. She says the number of children in her center has fallen from more than 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 of stipends.

“Since we were transferred to the education department, I have been struggling to pay teachers and stick to the menu because I couldn’t afford to go grocery shopping…I just buy something that is enough to last all the time to come along.” month.

“The parents did not understand when I increased the school fees from R200 to R300. I now only have two teachers at the center because the number of children has decreased after I increased the school fees,” Hlongwa said.

Mandulo Khuzwayo, who runs a center in KwaNdengezi, west of Durban, said the ministry of education pays a subsidy of R17 per day per child, but when payments are late they sometimes have to borrow from loan sharks to be able to continue to function and to be able to pay the staff.

“It is not easy to survive under these financial challenges. We are facing non-payment by the ministry of education. Of the R17 subsidy per child, 40% goes to nutrition and the 40% teacher allowance and 20% goes to administration and municipal bills,” Khuzwayo said.

“I am forced to give them whatever food is available. I cannot send them home because some of them come from disadvantaged families where they cannot afford a good breakfast.”

KwaZulu-Natal Ministry of Education spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi said: “We can confirm that we have started paying for ECD centres. But from where I sit I cannot tell you how many have been paid and how many still have to be paid, because it is an ongoing process.”

Linderboom said the LRC is preparing for lawsuits if necessary.