Untangling the red tape of crèche registration

City of Cape Town is trying to make the process easier for Early Childhood Development centres

By Mary-Anne Gontsana

23 April 2026

Early Childhood Development centres often battle with the red tape needed to meet the requirements for registration. Graphic: Lisa Nelson

The City of Cape Town has taken steps to make it easier for Early Childhood Development centres to get through the red tape of registering so they can apply for the national subsidy.
The subsidy is currently at R24 a day for each child.
But many ECD centres do not meet the requirements for registration and cannot get the subsidy.

Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres have to deal with tangles of red tape in order to register and apply for the national R24-a-day subsidy for each child. In the City of Cape Town, the municipality is trying to make the process easier, with promising results, according to the Centre for Early Childhood Development.

According to the City, in just six months, more than 200 ECD centres have been helped towards compliance with the regulations, “a critical step in enabling facilities to operate legally, meet safety standards and ultimately register with the Western Cape Education Department.”

Mayco member for community services and health Francine Higham said the City’s role “is to help the centres navigate the registration process, remove obstacles where possible, and provide the guidance and support needed to move centres towards compliance.”

In August last year, the City hosted an ECD Indaba, at which problems with red tape and the registration process were aired.

“Since the Indaba, there have been some notable developments,” said Sarah Atmore, infrastructure manager at the Centre for Early Childhood Development. She pointed to a by-law amendment which came into effect in October. The amendment allows an additional land use right to ECD centres under certain conditions, meaning they do not have to apply for land use approval.

Atmore also welcomed the revision of the criteria for development charge exemptions. A development charge is a once-off charge to cover the cost of municipal services such as water and sanitation, electricity, roads and stormwater management, as a result of the intensification of land use. The City said since July last year it had facilitated compliance for five of the 200 ECD centres by supporting and covering development charges.

An ECD centre owner in Khayelitsha said in her case the development charge was close to R500,000 which she could not afford. She applied for exemption in February and was hopeful after seeing other centres get exemption.

According to the City, there are more than 2,600 ECD centres in Cape Town, and approximately 45% are registered.

Only registered centres can get the government subsidy, currently R24 per child per day. “The subsidy is only paid for qualifying children, and typically covers about 260 days per year,” said Yusrah Ehrenreich, the CECD’s advocacy and social justice manager.

The City had introduced an online digital system designed to streamline the whole compliance and registration process, but, said Ehrenreich, though well intentioned, the system was actually delaying some critical steps like fire inspections. ECD centres have to go through fire inspections to get clearance certificates. In order to do this, Ehrenreich said:

The centre must complete an online application form and provide supporting documents;
The case is directed to the Land Use Management department to confirm that Land Use Management approval is in place. They have 21 days to review it and confirm;
The case then gets sent to the Building Development Management Department who also has 21 days to confirm that there are approved building plans in place;
In order for the case to progress on the digital tool and be moved from one department to the next, a Community, Arts and Culture Development Department official must log in to the case and push it to the next stage/department. This is not an automatic process and it relies on the official to move it along. Yet, said Ehrenreich, ECD centres had already submitted proof of land use and building development approvals when they first logged in;
After the Building Development Management department has confirmed that there are approved building plans in place, the case gets sent to the Fire Department for them to conduct their inspection and if the ECD centre is compliant, to issue the fire clearance certificate; and
The Fire Department also has 21 days to do an inspection and provide feedback.

“It can easily take two months or longer for an ECD centre to get their fire clearance certificate… When it does not go smoothly it can take substantially longer. We have seen examples taking well over six months,” said Ehrenreich.

Atmore said: “We commend the City for the commitment it has shown in working to assist ECD centres in overcoming the various challenges they face. A considerable amount has already been achieved, but there is still a long way to go, particularly in supporting the most vulnerable ECD centres, which serve the city’s most vulnerable children.”