Wealthy town gets heavy with a humble creche

One of South Africa's richest municipalities is threatening to evict a tiny creche run by poor teachers in an informal area near the Western Cape holiday town of Stanford.

Overstrand Municipality, with assets of more than R3-billion, wants the school to sign a lease for a derelict government building it has occupied for more than a decade.

The registered creche is dependent on donor funding and managed by an education NGO called Food 4 Thought. It employs a handful of teachers, provides free care to about 60 children from a nearby informal settlement, and is the only such pre-school facility in the area.

However, last month the Overstrand Council, which has supported the school in the past, threatened Food 4 Thought with an eviction letter.

The letter gave the school one month's notice to sign a formal lease agreement for the building - which used to be a workers' compound for the Department of Transport - or vacate the premises.

Food 4 Thought paid a R500 lease application fee, but insists it will not be bullied into signing a lease. Although it has been told the initial monthly rental would be nominal, it fears any future increase could leave it unable to operate.

The once deserted building is full of colourful toddler art and adjoins a playground filled with homemade jungle gyms and a veggie garden.

"There was absolutely nothing when we got here," said Jane Dowie Dunn, one of the school's founders.

"We've gone to huge lengths to establish an isiXhosa school in an area where there was none, so why are they charging us to do that?"

Food 4 Thought manager Maryanne Ward said the town's Op Die Kop community was shocked at the threat to the school. She said a community meeting last month culminated in a resolution to resist the municipality's bullying tactics.

The dispute over the school first surfaced two years ago when school management received notification that it needed to formalise a lease agreement in terms of new legislation. A stormy meeting followed, but the school heard nothing further for two years, until the end of August when it was served notice to sign or vacate.

"We feel the municipality has a social responsibility to support development, and we are a fantastic success story," Ward said.

Overstrand spokesman Riana Steenekamp denied a standoff.

"The applicant [Food 4 Thought] submitted the required application and paid the application fee as requested on several occasions. We will now follow the necessary procedure," she said.