KZN government fails to pay crèches despite court order

At least 275 ECD centres are struggling with late subsidy payments in KwaZulu-Natal, the Legal Resources Centre says. Illustration: Lisa Nelson

The KwaZulu-Natal Department (KZN) of Education has failed to comply with a court order to pay three Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres what is owed to them, says the Legal Resources Centre (LRC).

GroundUp previously reported that the LRC is representing three ECD centres that are owed subsidies from the department. ECD subsidies are currently set at R17 per child per day. An additional 275 centres are said to have been affected by late payments in the province.

On 26 May, the LRC obtained a court order from the KZN High Court in Pietermaritzburg compelling the department to pay the three ECD centres by 5 June. The centres were owed between R37,873 and R63,784 each. The total amount owed to the three centres as of May was R168,859.

But the LRC’s Sheniece Linderboom told GroundUp the payments have been “inconsistent and sporadic”, and R29,615 is still outstanding, more than a month after the court order. In addition, none of the centres have received subsidies for June.

Bonisiwe Mthembu, the principal at Sakhowethu Crèche, which has 48 children, has now gone into personal debt to keep the crèche running.

She told GroundUp that her staff have already gone two months without wages, and some have already resigned. The crèche now only stays open until midday so that she can keep her costs down.

Should the crèche shut down, she does not know what will happen to the children. The department has offered no support in this regard.

“The department’s consistent failure to deliver subsidies in a timely and transparent manner has left many ECD centres on the brink of collapse,” said the LRC’s statement.

The statement says the LRC’s numerous attempts to follow up with the department have been unfruitful. The department has sent back “vague responses” which cite internal accounting processes and give no clear payment schedule.

While they are not yet taking action to have the department held in contempt of court, the LRC will be monitoring compliance closely.

Part B of the LRC’s court application is still to be heard in court. The applicants want the court to declare access to ECD a constitutional right, to compel the department to disclose all unpaid subsidies across KZN and to hand down an order requiring the department to report all progress towards full compliance to the Court.

The department did not respond to requests for comment.

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