Indaba to Bolster Early Childhood Development Sector

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, Deputy Mayor Alderman Eddie Andrews, the Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Health, Councillor Francine Higham and the National Minister of Basic Education, Minister Siviwe Gwarube, convened an Early Childhood Development (ECD) Indaba at the Cape Town Council Chambers on Saturday, 2 August 2025. The event brought together ECD practitioners, stakeholders and City staff from across the metro to unpack the ECD sector challenges and opportunities.

‘Early Childhood Development is the foundation of any healthy, capable and thriving society. This Indaba is a commitment from the City to walk alongside our ECD sector, helping them to become compliant, resilient and more accessible,’ said Alderman Eddie Andrews.

‘According to the 2021 ECD Census, Cape Town is home to around 2 620 ECDs serving almost 100 000 children, but nearly 60% of these facilities remain unregistered. This amounts to more than 1 500 centres, supporting over 63 000 children that are operating in a system that is often simply too complex and too expensive,’ said Alderman Andrews.

The Indaba has been hosted as the City is undertaking reforms to reshape the regulatory space for ECD centres, providing them with more support and making it easier for them to operate and meet registration requirements.

‘We are embarking on a community-engaged, multi-sectoral drive to support ECD centres in rural, informal communities and disadvantaged communities to meet registration requirements. We are working with all spheres of government to target specific barriers that prevent registration, be they infrastructure, compliance capacity or administrative hurdles,’ said Minister Siviwe Gwarube.
The day’s programme featured a series of cross-sectoral engagements designed to provide clarity on available support and chart a path toward greater compliance and sustainability, including the origins of the City’s ECD task team, the recent regulatory reforms to aid the sector as well as the City’s integrated health and social support offerings for the sector.

‘Early childhood development is where a City of Hope truly begins. The Community Services and Health Directorate focuses on making it easy for ECDs to register, become compliant and access resources. In this current financial year, the Community Services and Health Directorate is investing R4 million to fund these support services. A big challenge for ECDs is accessing available resources. This is why I encourage ECD practitioners to join their local ECD forums to advocate for and learn about the support needed in this critical sector,’ said Councillor Higham.