KwaZulu-Natal government ordered to pay crèches

Sinamuva Crèche has not received subsidy payments for two months. Photo: Joseph Bracken

• A court in Pietermaritzburg has ordered the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education to pay three early childhood centres the subsidies owed to them.
• They are among at least 275 centres in the province that have faced late payments, with one of them being owed more than R130,000, according to court papers.
• Late payments have caused some centres to close their doors or implement cost-cutting measures.

Judge Siphokazi Jikela, sitting in the high court in Pietermaritzburg, has ordered the KwaZulu-Natal government to pay three Early Childhood Development centres who are owed between R37,873 and R63,784 each.

Early Childhood Development (ECD) subsidies are set by the national government, currently at R17 a day per child, but the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education has been failing to pay centres on time. The three centres are among at least 275 in the province that have struggled with late subsidy payments, with one of them owed more than R130,000.

Friends of South Africa (FOSA) and the KwaZulu-Natal Early Childhood Development Alliance are leading the court action against the department. The organisations are represented by the Legal Resources Centre.

ECD centres provide a safe place for children to receive a foundational education and have their nutritional needs met while their parents are working or studying, says Nkosinathi Sibisi, the chairperson of FOSA. Without this support, parents either have to give up working to stay at home or leave their children alone.

They appeared in an urgent court hearing on Monday, asking for the department to be ordered to pay the three centres — Sakhokwethu Crèche, Phumelela Crèche, and Zenzeleni Crèche — within five days. The Department’s lawyers asked for a 30 day timeframe due to issues with their payment system. But Judge Jikela ordered the department to pay within ten days.

In the second part of their court application, which will be heard in court at a future date, FOSA and their co-litigants have submitted a list of 275 centres that have been receiving their subsidies late. They want the department to file a report to the court, describing the extent of the department’s breach of payment obligations and “a plan to overcome these deficiencies”.

Sibisi told GroundUp that the late payment issues go back to 2022, when the KZN education department took over the subsidy payments from the Department of Social Development (DSD).

“Even though there were payment issues when it was still done by the [DSD], it was never this bad,” said Sibisi.

The department has not explained the reasons for late payments in the court documents and declined to answer GroundUp’s questions.

Many of FOSA’s members have recently had to shut their doors because they did not have enough money to keep their centres running, says Sibisi.

According to court papers, Sakhokwethu Crèche has still not received subsidy grant payments for January, February and March of 2024, and March and April of this year.

Phumelela Crèche and Zenzeleni Crèche have not received any payments since before December 2024.

According to their court papers, these late payments have led to staff not being paid and some being laid off. The centres have had to reduce child intake due to parents not being able to pay the fees.

Thembekile Ndlovu, the principal of Zenzeleni Crèche, told GroundUp the centre has had to lay off skilled staff whose salaries they can no longer afford to pay. To feed the children, Ndlovu has had to pay for groceries out of her pocket and take out personal loans.

The centre has also had to turn down parents who cannot afford to pay the basic fee, says Ndlovu. Under normal circumstances, the grant from the department would cover the fees for many of these children.

Sinamuva, a crèche located in Inanda that Sibisi manages, is one of the 275 centres listed in the court papers. The creche has not received its subsidy for the last two months, leaving Sibisi with no choice but to use his own money to keep the centre going.

Groundup visited Sinamuva last week. Sibisi said that they have had to start finding cheaper alternatives to feed the children, deviating from their usual nutritional plan. Some days, they have had to ask parents to pack lunches for their children, which not all of them can afford.

The children’s toilets also have no seats because the department had instructed the centre to replace the adult seats with children’s seats, but the centre does not have enough money to buy new ones.

Sisile Khoza, principal of Ntukwini pre-school, which is also on the list, said the department owes her centre over six months of subsidies. This has caused the centre to quickly run into debt as it now owes many people payment, such as day labourers, says Khoza.

“We are struggling to survive here because we are in the rural areas and most of the parents are not employed, only relying on the government child support grant,” said Khoza. According to the list, the creche is currently owed R138,000 by the department.

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