Despite billions of rand being allocated to early childhood development (ECD) programmes in South Africa, many centres across the country say they are still waiting for funding, leaving teachers unpaid and vulnerable children at risk.
The Department of Basic Education’s 2024-25 annual report showed that National Treasury allocated R10 billion to increase the ECD subsidy to R24 per child per day and expand access to an additional 700,000 children.
Further commitments were included in the department’s 2025-26 annual performance plan, which set aside R6.3 billion over the medium term for ECD conditional grants aimed at supporting registered programmes.
Additional funding included R210 million for infrastructure projects, R100 million for a results-based financing pilot programme, and R236 million for an ECD nutrition initiative.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube also recently launched the R496 million Early Childhood Care and Education Outcomes Fund.
However, ECD practitioners and advocacy groups say the reality at community level tells a different story.
Provinces face mounting pressure over unpaid ECD subsidies
In the North West province, several ECD centres reportedly received messages indicating that the provincial ECD budget had already been depleted, leaving no funds available for this year.
The Department of Basic Education rejected the claim, saying provincial allocations are transferred quarterly and cannot be exhausted so early in the financial year.
Yet officials were unable to explain why some centres in the province allegedly had not received subsidies for more than a year.
Concerns over delayed payments are not limited to one province. In KwaZulu-Natal, the Legal Resources Centre has taken the provincial education department to the Pietermaritzburg High Court over what it describes as widespread failures to pay subsidies to registered ECD centres.
Last year, the court ordered the department to settle outstanding payments owed to three centres. A second phase of the legal battle is expected to continue next week, with applicants seeking a court order requiring the department to disclose all unpaid subsidies and settle them within days.
Advocacy organisations argue that delayed payments are exposing deeper structural weaknesses within South Africa’s ECD system.
Children and teachers feel the impact of funding delays
Tshepo Mantjé, ECD coordinator at Real Reform for ECD, said the crisis highlights how funding remains unequal, unreliable, and insufficient.
According to Mantjé, even the official subsidy of R24 per child per day is too low to cover the real costs of care, nutrition, and early learning support. In practice, many centres either receive payments late or fail to receive them altogether.
Only around 40% of the subsidy allocation goes towards meals, leaving less than R10 per child per day to cover two meals and a snack.
Sector representatives warn that delayed subsidies are forcing some centres to scale back services, while others face possible closure.
Practitioners say children from poorer communities are suffering the most through reduced nutrition, overcrowded classrooms, and fewer educational resources.
Research from the 2024 Thrive by Five Index found that fewer than half of South African children are developmentally on track by the age of five, with poverty identified as one of the major contributing factors.
Annah Fourie, chairperson of the South African Association for Early Childhood Development, said many centres are now operating under severe financial strain.
She argued that administrative compliance requirements are increasingly being used to delay or withhold funding, adding that the sector is facing a growing crisis.
The Department of Basic Education said it is introducing digitised systems aimed at improving subsidy processing and payment efficiency.
Officials also stressed that the subsidy programme is intended to supplement parental fees rather than fully fund ECD centres.
Source: Department of Basic Education, Legal Resources Centre, Stats SA
