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1,000 signatures reached
To: The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality
City of Joburg, Stop criminalising ECD practitioners. Help them register.
Dear City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, through the City Manager. ,
We call on you to urgently intervene to support early childhood development (ECD) practitioners who face criminal prosecution because municipal barriers prevent them from obtaining health permits.
Three practitioners from Orange Farm face criminal charges while struggling to obtain municipal leases and meet costly compliance requirements. The City must help resolve the barriers within its control and enable practitioners to provide safe, quality care.
Working with the MMC for Health and Social Development, we ask you to:
- Seek the withdrawal of charges against the three practitioners, through engagement with Lawyers for Human Rights and the relevant prosecuting authorities, and urgently review similar enforcement cases involving unresolved municipal documentation barriers.
- Resolve outstanding municipal leases for ECD centres on City-owned land. Accept appropriate alternative proof of occupation, including written municipal confirmation, while leases are finalised.
- Make compliance accessible and affordable. Provide coordinated assistance with health permits, land-use approvals and building plans, including fee waivers for centres serving poor communities.
- Review the City’s by-laws and processes with practitioners and ECD organisations to remove unnecessary barriers while maintaining meaningful health and safety protections for children.
- Meet with the affected practitioners, Sisonke ECD Forum, Real Reform for ECD and Lawyers for Human Rights within 14 days, and publish an action plan with named officials and clear deadlines.
ECD practitioners need a municipality that helps them comply. Children need safe, supported centres in their communities.
Put children first. Make local government work for ECD.
#BanaPele
Put children first. Make local government work for ECD.
#BanaPele
Why is this important?
After 27 years of caring for children, Mama Sweetness Marubelela found herself in a criminal dock. She is one of three Orange Farm ECD practitioners facing charges for operating without municipal health permits. Her lawyers explained that she needs a municipal lease to apply, but the City has not provided it. She is being prosecuted while the municipality controls the document she needs.
This is a systemic problem. Sisonke ECD Forum reports that approximately 200 of its 265 principals struggle to obtain health permits. Missing documents, costly building plans and municipal fees prevent centres from complying. Fines take money away from food, salaries and improvements, while closures risk leaving children without care and parents unable to work.
Children deserve safe, quality ECD services. Municipalities must uphold safety standards while helping practitioners meet them. A fine cannot produce a missing lease or resolve an unaffordable approval process.
Sign and share this petition to demand action from The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Together, we can push Johannesburg to resolve outstanding leases, remove registration barriers and support practitioners.
#Bana Pele
#MakeLocalGovernmentWorkForECD!
#Bana Pele
#MakeLocalGovernmentWorkForECD!