Call to extend relief fund deadline for early childhood development centres By Sisonke Mlamla Share Cape Town - Civil society organisations have requested an extension by another week on the deadline for the applications by early childhood development (ECD) centres for Covid-19 relief funds. Colleen Daniels-Horswell, of the C-19 People's Coalition's ECD and Basic Education Working Group, said the proposed ECD stimulus package was going to miss the mark as it must be paid out in a few weeks, before the financial year end on March 31. He is asking for the application deadline to be pushed to March 5. Last week, several centres and the Western Cape Department of Social Development called on the national Social Development minister to extend the deadline for applications, saying the first deadline of 11:59pm February 19 was unrealistic. It was then extended to February 26.