In 2006, Emelda Kunene, with financial support from 2 benefactors, set up the Embizeni Crèche.
It currently caters for children from 6 months to 4 years, 7:00 am to 5:00 pm. She has 6 teachers/assistants helping to guide the children and a cook for the children’s mid-day meal. Parents are charged R100/month with a further R15.00/day per child paid by the Ward Councillor.
Quite a few of the mothers are school girls who cannot pay anything but some of them work in the Embizeni vegetable garden and help in this way. The crèche has a written constitution setting out its objectives and organisational structure which includes a focus on early childhood development.
Early Childhood Development Centres like Embizeni, have been battling since 2023 because of irregular subsidy payments by the provincial department of education. As a result, the centres cannot pay staff or feed the children properly.
Jurisdiction over the centres was moved from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Education in 2022. As a result, Embizeni relies heavily on the monthly sponsorship from KidZAid.
