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I have written to the National Minister of Social Development, Ms Lindiwe Zulu, urging her Department to extend the closing date for the applications for Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres and programmes that wish to apply for the Early Childhood Development Employment Stimulus Relief Fund with applications due to close this Friday, 19 February 2021.
I further note with concern, the very tight deadline (05 February- 19 February 2021) provided to ECD centres to apply for the Employment Stimulus Relief Fund that is crucial to sustaining employment opportunities in the sector in light of the high unemployment rate and job losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In my letter, I have proposed that the application date be extended by a further week (Friday 26 February 2021), to provide ECD services with a fair opportunity to meet all the relevant requirements.
The importance of ECD services cannot be understated. ECD centres and programmes provide children with the emotional and cognitive tools to develop into productive citizens at the latter stages of their lives, and also provides a place of safety for children, whilst their parents are at work.
As of the 17th February 2021, 1574 applications for the ECD Employment Stimulus Relief Fund, have been received from the Western Cape.
According to the provincial Department of Social Development's (DSD) database, there are approximately 4282 ECD centres and programmes (both registered and unregistered) in the province.
In light of the National Department of Social Development’s Early Childhood Development Employment Stimulus Relief Fund, the provincial Department of Social Development encourages all ECD services who have participated in the DSD-led Vangasali Campaign to apply for this programme.
Before making an application, applicants must ensure that they have the following in place:
• Banking account: All ECD services making an application will need to have a bank account in the name of the ECD service.
• Loaded on the Central Supplier Database (CSD): ECD services that do not currently receive funding from Provincial DSD will need to be registered on the CSD database, which can be done via this link: https://secure.csd.gov.za/Account/Register.
• The registration number generated from the CSD database will be required for the stimulus application.
How to apply:
Applicants must use the govchat.app portal to apply. For assistance with the application, call 0800 089 666. For more information about the qualifying criteria, visit www.dsd.gov.za
Applications opened on 05 February 2021 and will close at 23h59 on the 19 February 2021.
The National Department of Social Development makes a solidarity call to the ECD sector to support this ECD-ESRF by assisting their constituents to complete the on-line application where such assistance is required.
Joshua Covenant Chigome
Spokesperson for the Minister of Social Development, Minister Sharna Fernandez
Tel: 021 483 9217
Cell: 083 661 4949