Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Western Cape has 2 755 unregistered early childcare development (ECD) facilities in the province – significantly more than the 2 192 officially registered sites.
Western Cape Education Department (WCED) spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said these figures are based on its provincial registration database.
Unregistered ECD centres have been thrust into the spotlight after an eight-month-old boy, Mohammed Qiran Canterbury, mysteriously died at a daycare centre in Bonteheuwel a week ago. His parents, Zaidah Adams and Tashreeq Canterbury, are still waiting for answers on what happened to their baby.
The parents told News24 they were shocked to hear the crèche wasn’t registered with the department. “We were all under the impression the crèche is a registered institution,” said Canterbury.
The family now wants the facility to be shut down.
The WCED has since confirmed that the crèche was not registered. According to the department, there are various reasons why ECDs don’t register their business, including the costs involved.
“The sites may need to make structural or other changes to comply with the norms and standards, as well as various municipal by-laws and requirements,” said Hammond.
The WCED, social service organisations and the relevant municipalities are all responsible for registering ECDs.
According to Hammond, if a facility or person takes care of six or more children during specific hours of the day/night, they must register as an ECD.
The registration process starts with an application to the relevant municipal office which assesses and considers compliance in terms of various requirements:
“Once the necessary clearance certificates [are] obtained, [a] social services organisation (SSO) will do a site visit. A report will be submitted to WCED for registration approval consideration.”
A registration certificate is issued if approval is granted. “The organisation can then qualify for a subsidy for their institution,” Hammond said. There is no standardised process for obtaining required documentation to complete the process across municipalities.
In Cape Town, they use an electronic system to streamline all applications for municipal compliance. “This system is not in use in other municipalities,” Hammond said.
She said the waiting period in applying for registration depends on how long compliance documents take to be issued.
Once the portfolio of evidence is submitted, verification is done.
The timeframe depends on whether the facility complies with all the requirements.
“We are engaging with municipalities to improve processes. We are also constrained by various municipal by-laws, requirements, and national legislation,” said Hammond.
National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) chief executive officer David Millar said unregistered sites have sprung up without necessary health and safety provisions for children.
He said the number of unregistered centres speaks to the lengths to which parents go to get their children “supervised”.
Millar said centres remain unregistered because of the high costs of registration and compliance.
Single mothers, who are breadwinners, are the most desperate to find an ECD centre for their children. “It is their daily reality,” he said.
He said the only way to get rid of more unregistered ECDs is for relevant authorities to categorise, register and subsidise them.
Bonteheuwel ward councillor Angus McKenzie said more than 30 centres in his area are unregistered.
“These ECDs are in the process of being registered,” McKenzie said.
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