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SAHRC complaint lodged against Minister Zulu over closure of private Early Childhood Development centres

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Dear MyPE

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has lodged a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to urgently investigate Social Development Minister, Lindiwe Zulu, and her Department’s decision to keep registered Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres closed across South Africa under the risk-adjusted level 3 lockdown.

Childcare is an essential service under the lockdown regulations as well as Section 28 of the Constitution.

The increasing levels of malnourishment and hunger amongst children during this time is a gross human rights violation. Child hunger will only persist if the national government continues to refuse ECD centres and school kitchens to feed children.

Furthermore, many vulnerable children roam their communities unsupervised and face immediate dangers such as sexual and criminal predators.

Many parents are back at work under level 3 lockdown and therefore desperately need a safe place to care for and educate their child.

The safety and well-being of children in South Africa must be this government’s top priority. Minister Zulu, however, has shown the nation where children feature on her list of priorities – last. Evidenced by the fact that the Department of Social Development’s first engagement with its provincial counterparts and the ECD sector was only held on 26 May 2020 and subsequently, on 9 June 2020.

Under the Department of Basic Education, ECD centres linked to schools will reopen on 6 July 2020 with provision for deviation under the regulations signed on 1 June 2020 by Minister Angie Motshekga, while there is still no date set by Minister Zulu, for private registered ECD centres which are at the brink of financial collapse and permanent closure.

Minister Zulu’s nonchalant stance to the reopening of the ECD sector was amplified in an interview on Newsroom Afrika on 9 June 2020, in which Minister Zulu indicated that she will not commit to any timelines regarding the opening of these centres.

The blatant discrimination between ECD centres linked to Basic Education and those that are privately registered must be addressed as this type of discrimination only perpetuates inequalities within the sector and will see some children benefit and others not.

A paradox in the face of Minister Zulu’s new ECD campaign: Vangasali, which means “leave no child or ECD centre behind” in Xitsonga.

The DA looks forward to an urgent investigation by the SAHRC into this matter as children must remain government’s top priority and not an afterthought.

Regards

Alexandra Abrahams MP
DA Member of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development

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