OPEN LETTER TO MINISTER OF EDUCATION & PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA

The LAND Party is outraged at the criminal deprioritization of ECD at SONA 2021.

The apparent lack of investment in our children will continue to leave an indelible blemish on the conscience of your party and this nation. Rest assured that history and the people of South Africa will hold you and the apartheid regime jointly responsible for the genocide of generations of our youth and relegating them to an existence of stunted development, and poverty and government handouts.

ECD AND SONA 2021

In October 2020 and repeatedly thereafter you announced a stimulus package of 1.3 billion for ECD.

TO DATE - R803 million of this package has been stolen/vanished

We were told last night R497 million is available for ECD and 108000 ECD workers will get a ONCE OFF payment of R4000.

What happens after this?

THE STATE OF ECD IN SA

1) ECD centres were closed during the lockdown resulting in:

-an increase in child murders

-parents staying home to care for children impacting eonomic growth

-many children denied a "nutritious "meal

2) There are about 30 000 ECD centres in SA

• 5% - world class

• 30% - provide reasonably nutritious meals, have reasonable infrastructure, and are doing good job

• 25% - little infrastructure, poor quality nutrition, and learning

• 45% - no buildings, no programmes, poorly or untrained teachers, inferior food

RESEARCH

Children who attend proper ECD centres:

• Do better academically, are more likely to get a job, and girls are less likely to fall pregnant as teenagers

• Are given the opportunity and resources to develop

• Are socially, emotionally, cognitively, and physically developed in a socialized environment through play

• Have parents who are able to attend work and grow the economy

South Africa has the money and can well afford to invest in its children according to the UN - lack of funding is no excuse.

The Land Party reminds you that:

• Many ECD centres are run from shacks and cannot survive

• The closing date to access the stimulus funding is FEBRUARY 17 and many people, in rural areas particularly, do not have the technical knowledge and funds for data to register on databases online and complete complex forms.

They are effectively disqualified from obtaining critical funding!

It is ironic that prisoners are subsidized to the tune of R400 daily and children at ECD centres R17!

How is it that the majority of the inmates are youths in the 1st place?!

In our view, this amounts to clear structural abuse and neglect of young children. It is unconscionable that our children are being set up to fail in life.

The theft of funds is nothing more than treasonous!

How can we, Mr President, take our nation forward when we ignore and continue to add to the plight of millions of broken children.

The LAND Party demands:

1) that these officials, (criminal, reckless, and incompetent) be held accountable

2) that the Minister be removed for non-performance,

3) that complex and tedious application procedures be removed,

4) that the non-profit sector be involved in processing, training, adopting ECD Centres if needs be and in monitoring, to ensure monies reach the centres and not the purses of politicians.

Our future and the destiny of the nation lies in the hands of our capable youth!

In the words of one of your own: "a nation that neglects its children does not deserve a future!' Oliver Tambo