Status Update On The Ecd Stimulus Employment Relief Fund (Esrf)...

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Media Statement

Pretoria, Wednesday, 12 May 2021: The Department of Social Development (DSD) issued a media statement on the ECD stimulus package on the 16 April 2021 to provide an update on the status of applications for the ECD Employment Stimulus Relief Fund (ESRF). In this regard, the Department indicated that a major challenge in processing outstanding applications was, inter alia, due to a number of errors wherein applicants either incorrectly captured the identity numbers of their staff that they had applied for or, provided incorrect banking information. Guidance and communication with all affected applications was done on multiple occasions and adequate time was provided for applications to be corrected and the system was left open from the 01 March 2021 until the 07 May 2021 for this purpose. It must be emphatically stated that unfortunately, the Department cannot process any applications for payments if the applications have incorrect information that has not been updated by the ECD services.

When the DSD introduced the ESRF, we noted with great concern at how informal the sector really was, wherein most had no banking details, and no proper records of staff amongst others, especially given the number of non-profit organisations (NPO’s) that work with and support the ECD sector.

Given the above, the Department made a number of concessions to accommodate the ECD sector and introduced a number of initiatives to provide support namely:

  • DSD developed a new policy and guideline to implement the ESRF which allowed for a deviation from 31 funding requirements to accommodate the informal nature of the sector;
  • The Department deliberately included unregistered ECD services in its criteria for eligibility for the ESRF;
  • To accommodate small ECD centres and non-centre based programmes (that are usually individually run), the Department approved that NPO umbrella organisations could apply on behalf of multiple organisations that they know, work with and support;
  • Changes were made to allow not only NPO’s but also organisations (largely churches etc) that are categorised as Public Benefit organisations to also apply for multiple ECDs;
  • All DSD district offices were capacitated and mobilised to support their local offices to assist ECD services with enquiries and to complete applications;
  • To assist organisations with completing applications in order to address issues of remoteness, lack of access to computers etc, the Provincial Departments of Social Development, working with the DG Murray Trust dispersed a number of organisations to assist ECD services; 
  • We also brought onboard a number of Harambee Youth Support Services who were mobilised to assist organisations with their applications;
  • A number of step by step guidelines were made available to assist organisations to complete applications to further simplify the process;
  • The Nelson Mandela Foundation held a number of sessions to help ECD services apply of which at least 12 were attended by over 1000 attendees to further capacitate ECD services on how to correct and update their information;
  • The application form and communication material on the ESRF was translated into a number of different languages to improve accessibility;
  • A toll-free call centre and dedicated email address was set up to address enquires;
  • In earlier communication on the application criteria, ECD services were categorically advised to make an application for all staff that work at the ECD service. After receiving all applications and completing the data quality analysis, the department lifted the cap of only paying up to a maximum of four employees for centre-based services and one employee for non-centre-based services to paying all employees that the ECD service applied for the value of R4186 per employee – this was a significant move to support more ECD services;
  • To assist the process of payments to ECD services that still needed to update their information, the Department had to review its initial plan of making only one payment to an ECD service for all employees to now making partial payments for employees who have passed the ID verification process so that the ECD service received some funding. This meant that some ECD services would receive funds for some of their employees whilst the ECD service was expected to update and correct the identity numbers for the remaining staff; and
  • Given all the challenges with ECD services needing to correct their applications, the DSD extended and left the system open for ECD services to update their information from March to the 07 May 2021.

The Department issued eight (8) media statements and the Minister had a press briefing in Cape Town on the 29 March 2021, to further ensure that we constantly provide status updates and guidance to the ECD sector, the last being issued on the 16 April 2021. Furthermore, the Department continues to work with the Inter-Sectoral Forum (ISF) which comprises of civil society organisations that support the ECD sector and engages with them on these matters. Furthermore, this project is jointly managed and monitored by the department and civil society through a national project management office.

The ISF has noted the regular briefings on the challenges experienced in this regard and has kept their members updated accordingly.

We are conscious of the tedious process it took for ECD services to register for the ESRF, but with previous experiences on other government relief programmes and giving due consideration to the need for the Department to meet all legislative prescripts before disbursing public funds, these processes were absolutely necessary, to avoid exposing the DSD and its Provinces to additional risks.

The Department cannot disburse funds to ECD services without being able to verify that:

  • The ECD service exists;
  • The staff employed have valid identity numbers; and
  • The bank account that public funds are to be disbursed into for this fund is not a private bank account and is verified to exist in the name of the service that is making the application.

These requirements are necessary in order to adhere to the Public Finance Management Act and are also reasonable for any government department to make payments notwithstanding the fact that unregistered ECD services had never financially transacted with the Department before. Anything less than this would border on recklessness on the part of the Department with severe consequences being levelled against the Department by those charged with the responsibility to ensure that public funds are well managed and are accounted for to the Auditor General-South Africa amongst others, that places great emphasis on compliance and accountability. Through this verification process, we were able to pick up that some applicants were actually employees of government and some deceased for a long time. 

As previously communicated, the Department would like to reiterate that when the financial year ended on the 31 March 2021, no further payments could be made. However, all ECD services that have applied and meet the criteria for the ECD ESRF prior to the closing date will start to receive their payments within the next few weeks. ECD services are strongly encouraged to review the status of their application using their reference number on www.ecd.gov.za  and should ECD services need to make any further enquiries, these can be directed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Department acknowledges that the process is taking longer than expected, but emphasises that all processes must be adhered to accordingly. All Provinces have now engaged their Provincial Treasury’s for roll-overs and this process is currently underway. The Department will continue to work with all its partners to support the implementation of the ECD stimulus relief fund and respond to challenges experienced by the ECD services. Furthermore, it will provide regular updates to the ECD sector on the status of the ECD ESRF through various mechanisms.

However, the Department has noted with concern that some people have incorrectly said that there has been no communication and that no ECD service has been paid. This is factually incorrect as demonstrated above. The Department has actually made some payments already, the unfortunate part was that we were at the end of the Financial Year which made it difficult to continue paying after March 2021 until all necessary National Treasury processes are concluded and this is stage we are at currently.

We would like to thank the ECD sector for their continued participation and patience in this process, and we would like to stress that we remain committed to supporting all ECD programmes as they deal with the impact on COVID-19 on their operations and service delivery.

Let us ensure that together we leave no ECD behind!

 

ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Media enquiries may be forwarded to Ms Lumka Oliphant on 083 484 8067 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.