Basic Education Minister, Siviwe Gwarube, says 58% of children in the country are not registered in pre-schools. Gwarube was addressing the city of Cape Town’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) Indaba 2025.

The intergovernmental dialogue focuses on municipal planning processes and compliance for ECD centers in Cape Town, particularly in under-resourced communities. The Indaba follows a review of the City’s Municipal Planning By-Law, which now makes it easier for ECD practitioners to become compliant.

The Indaba is also looking at how private sector-accredited ECD centers can partner with the national Department of Basic Education to deliver Grade R services.

“The most staggering and worrying statistics for me is that eight out of 10 children in South Africa cannot read for meaning in any language and that says to me we have literacy crisis and the greatest tragedy for me is that the most children in South Africa at second tier level. So we are sitting with millions of children who are not educated, who are not able to read a book with meaning, but it’s not their fault.”

This morning I attended the @CityofCT ‘s ECD Indaba.

Mayor @geordinhl and Deputy Mayor Eddie Andrews are leading the charge to bring local government to the table; work with the ECD sector to reduce their compliance burden with city by-laws.

It was great engaging with… pic.twitter.com/XGkgABW42Q

— Siviwe Gwarube (@Siviwe_G) August 2, 2025