The Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD) is urging all Early Childhood Development programmes and services that applied for the ECD Employment Stimulus Relief Fund, to verify their details that have been captured on Government’s database by Friday 7 May 2021.
As of the official closing date, 26 February 2021, a total of 3164 applications 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.
As part of the ongoing verification process that is completed by the National Department of Social Development, applicants have been sent an SMS to advise them to update their applications. For this reason, all ECD operators who have applied for the grant are urged to ensure that all their details that have been captured are correct, as this will affect the approval and processing of the payments to the applicants.
Please be advised that the National Department of Social Development has removed the requirement that was placed where up to only four employees were going to be paid for ECD centres and only one employee was going to be paid for non-centre-based services. This now means that ECD services that have passed all the necessary verifications will receive funding for all the employees that they applied for.
The National Department of Social Development noted that the following issues were identified during the verification process that includes amongst others:
All applicants are urged to log into the https://ecd.gov.za/ecd/login link to ensure that their details are accurate and if not, to correct or update their details. All updates must be completed by using the reference number they received when they submitted their applications on the GovChat platform.
In order to address failed banking verification, ECD services can link on https://secure.csd.gov.za to update or correct their banking information. Our partner, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, will be hosting information sessions in this regard. ECD services can link in on https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87228536319?pwd=cnE5S3dCOGIxcXBvdEkzR2ZhOFUrQT09 from Monday, 19 April – Friday 23 April 2021, from 09h00 – 11h00 daily.
For assistance with the applications, please email ecdstimulus@dgmt.co.za.
The National Department of Social Development further notes that it is unable to process any payments if applications have bank and staff verification inaccuracies as a result of wrong information submitted by applicants. Hence, applicants need to verify their details and do the necessary corrections to avoid payment delays.
Joshua Covenant Chigome
Spokesperson for the Minister of Social Development, Minister Sharna Fernandez
Tel: 021 483 9217
Cell: 083 661 4949