The City of Cape Town and the Centre for Early Childhood Development have partnered over the past three years to remove municipal barriers that block early childhood development centres from registration and subsidies.
A joint ECD task team was established in December 2022, led by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Deputy Mayor Eddie Andrews. The team has worked with 14 centres to trial solutions and reported progress to city leaders every two to three months. Key achievements by November 2025 include halting cease-and-desist notices except where health and safety risks exist, expanding an exempted areas map that covers 1,562 centres serving 58,043 children, and securing exemptions from administrative penalties. The City also approved changes to the Municipal Planning By-Law allowing centres in certain zones to operate without separate land-use approval. Deputy Mayor Eddie Andrews said the City wants to become a more enabling government. Practitioner Michelle Wagner of Legos Daycare described how the partnership helped lift penalties and charges that had reached R194,000, allowing her centre to continue serving the community.