Story audio is generated using AI
Zenzeleni Crèche principal Thembekile Ndlovu has lost count of the number of times she has had to dip into her pocket to pay for food and supplies for the children to keep them from starving
Ndlovu, is one of three principals in Pietermaritzburg — and among dozens of others in KwaZulu-Natal — that are struggling financially because the provincial education department has defaulted on early childhood development (ECD) subsidies.
In May 2025, the Legal Resource Centre took the department to court on behalf of the Friends of South Africa ECD Forum and the KZN ECD Alliance Pietermaritzburg, representing the two ECD forums, as well as three centres: Zenzeleni Crèche, Phumelela Crèche and Sakhokwethu Crèche.
The applicants sought relief from the court in two parts.
In the first part of the litigation, judge Siphokazi Jikela ordered the department to pay three ECD centres who are owed between R37,873 and R63,784 each on May 26 2025.
In the second part, which will be heard on Tuesday, they are seeking a structural interdict ordering the department to file a comprehensive report listing all subsidised ECD centres in the province, detailing the total subsidy amounts owed to each centre, and directing that all outstanding subsidies be paid within one week of the report being filed.
The Centre for Child Law will also be making an amicus curiae application.
“The case seeks to address systemic failures in the administration and payment of subsidies owed to qualifying ECD programmes. The applicants are also asking the court to recognise, for the first time in South African law, that access to ECD is constitutionally protected and that the state has clear obligations to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights of young children during their earliest years of development.
This litigation is about more than unpaid money. It concerns the grim reality for children whose access to early learning, nutrition, care and developmental support depends on community-based ECD programmes that cannot survive without reliable public funding.
For many families living in poverty, these programmes are among the few places where children receive a safe environment, nutritious meals, structured play, social support, and the care of trained practitioners, said Jean-André Butcher of the LRC.
Hundreds of ECD centres have experienced financial strain and collapse as a result of late, irregular and unexplained subsidy payments.
While the subsidy, recently increased from R17 to R18.95 per child per day, ECD experts say this is insufficient to cover the full cost of running an ECD programme.
However, for centres serving poor and marginalised communities, even this modest amount is the lifeline for sustaining operations, and without it, centres are forced to reduce services or close altogether.
Ndlovu said despite the court order in May last year, the education department has again defaulted on payment.
“They paid us until March and then that was the last time. For April and May and now June, we haven’t received a cent.”
She said ECD facilities were in impoverished areas and it was dire when they couldn’t access the subsidies.
“We are hungry and struggling and now it is winter, so a hot meal will really make a difference. But we are back to begging,” Ndlovu said.
“When subsidy payments are delayed or not paid, the consequences are immediate. Practitioners go unpaid and leave the sector. Centres are forced to cut down on meals, delay maintenance, reduce learning materials and struggle to keep safe and nurturing spaces open. These are not administrative inconveniences, they affect young children at a stage of life where nutrition, stimulation and care have lifelong consequences.
The crisis is especially acute in KwaZulu-Natal, where poverty, hunger, and inequality shape the lives of many young children. In 2022, 81 percent of young children in the province lived in households below the upper bound poverty line, even when the Child Support Grant was taken into account.
The province also carries high levels of food poverty and child stunting. In this context, access to ECD services is not optional. It is central to a child’s survival, development and equal opportunity."
The problem of unpaid ECD subsidies in KZN was originally flagged as early as 2024, when Friends of South Africa Early Childhood Development Forum and the KZN ECD Alliance raised concerns about unfair subsidy practices with the provincial department.
He said the applicants are also asking the court to monitor implementation so that any order granted results in “meaningful change” for ECD centres and the children who depend on them.
Court supervision is necessary because repeated requests for information and payment have not produced a reliable administrative system.
In summary, the applicants seek:
- A declaration that access to early childhood development is constitutionally protected;
- A declaration that irregular, inconsistent and delayed subsidy payments are unlawful and unconstitutional;
- An order directing the department to account for all outstanding subsidies owed to qualifying ECD programmes;
- An order requiring the department to provide a practical, transparent and time bound plan for payment; and
- Court supervision to ensure that the plan is implemented and that centres receive clear information about payments.