President Cyril Ramaphosa will later today, Wednesday, 05 October 2022, officially open the newly constructed Little Flower Early Childhood Development Centre (ECD) in Nkantolo within the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province. The centre had been operating for several years from a shack structure.

The construction of the centre is part of the Vangasali campaign which is a partnership between the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Department of Basic Education to enhance ECD service delivery in the country. Phase 2 of the Vangasali campaign, which is on-going, is aimed at standardising ECD registration across the country through the introduction of streamlined processes and a pathway to registration. Phase 3 of the Vangasali campaign is aimed at assisting those ECD services who in the absence of intervention will not be able to meet even the basic registration requirements.

The partnership was born out of the need to focus on ECD in order to overcome the country's development challenges.It was realised that lack of ECD provisioning is a major determinant of intergenerational poverty; and that this issue was cast as a soft issue rather than treated as urgent and fundamental to achieving a just and equitable society.

President Cyril Ramaphosa hannounced in 2018 during his SONA addresss that he would contribute half of his Presidential Salary to the Nelson Mandela Foundation. This money was utilised for work on Early Childhood Development which demonstrates its importance.

A media pool arrangement is in place and the event will be broadcast and streamed live on Presidency and the Nelson Mandela Foundation digital platforms.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency: Republic of South Africa.