Media Advisory
After a successful delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in the Northern Cape, Deputy Minister of Social Development, Ms Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, will on Wednesday, 21April, continue with her drive to get ECD children back to school across the Western Cape Province.
Over 5000 children in seven provinces have benefitted from the initiative that is aimed at assisting ECDs in rural areas to comply with COVID-19 regulations, and enable them to open their doors for children while the country is on Level 1 of the adjusted strategy.
To date, over 4 200 children attending ECDs have benefitted.
In February this year, the Department of Social Development launched the Early Childhood Development Employment Stimulus Relief Fund, to help ECD services to recover from the loss of income caused by COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of the closing date for applications of this funding, 3164 programs in Western Cape Province had applied for the fund.
The Department commenced with the payment of the fund and thus far, payments to 8 807 ECD services and 33 533 employees to the value of R140 369 138 were made. Unfortunately, the Department was unable to process further payments where applications had bank and staff verification inaccuracies. DSD is encouraging all ECD services which received notification via SMS to update their details by no later than May 07, 2021.
The Department would also like to advise the sector that it has removed the cap that was placed where up to four employees were going to be paid. This means that ECD services that have passed all the verifications will receive funding for all employees they applied for.
Members of the media are invited to attend and cover the handover of PPEs event arranged as follows:
Date: Wednesday, 21 April 2021
Time: 10h00
Venue: Agape Klueterland, 3 Heuwel St, Rustdene, Beaufort West Central Karoo.
Members of the media can RSVP by contacting Ms Makhosazana Mavuso on 072 732 9381 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Media enquiries may be directed to Ms Lumka Oliphant on 083 484 8067 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
