VZCZCXRO2783
PP RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR
DE RUEHSA #0844/01 0600815
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 010815Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1890
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY PRIORITY
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 0200
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUCPDC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PRETORIA 000844 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO DEPT OF HUD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV EFIN EINV EAID SF
SUBJECT: SOUTH AFRICA: ANC WILL DOMINATE LIMPOPO DESPITE 
WATER DELIVERY CHALLENGES 
 
REF: A. 05 PRETORIA 4585 
     ¶B. 06 PRETORIA 347 
 
(U) This cable is Sensitive But Unclassified.  Not for 
Internet Distribution. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary. The residents of Waterberg and Vhembe 
District Municipalities in Limpopo live with high levels of 
unemployment, poverty, and limited access to public services. 
 Despite frustrations, the electorate stands behind the ANC 
and will vote overwhelming for them in the March 1 local 
elections.  Some residents will abstain from voting or vote 
for opposition parties, but this will not have much impact on 
the election outcome.  A recent protest did occur in the 
Waterberg region against local government, but political 
undertones instead of service delivery appeared to drive this 
unrest.  Local government considers housing and electricity 
delivery areas of relative success given the challenges 
faced.  Water delivery remains the central crisis facing 
local government, as water is critical to the livelihood of 
its population and the region's economic growth prospects. 
End Summary. 
 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) This cable is part of a series of cables reporting 
on public service delivery and the mood of the electorate in 
advance of local elections on March 1.  Team members, 
including Embassy, Consulate, and USAID personnel, visited 
diverse municipalities in all nine provinces.  Refs A and B 
served as background pieces surrounding the local elections 
and service delivery nationwide.  This cable provides a 
summary of February visits by EconOff and PolAsst to 
municipalities in the Limpopo province.  Municipalities 
visited included the Waterberg and Vhembe District 
Municipalities and their Local Municipalities of Mookgophong 
(Waterberg), Bela-Bela (Waterberg), Thulamela (Vhembe), and 
Makhado (Vhembe). 
 
Poverty and Unemployment Permeates in Limpopo 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (U) Hundreds of villages comprise the northern province of 
Limpopo, which shares borders with Botswana, Zimbabwe, and 
Mozambique.  The provincial capital of Polokwane and a 
variety of small towns link these scattered villages.  As you 
drive throughout the province, the primary economic 
activities of farming, mining, and tourism become evident. 
This economic activity is not enough, however, to combat the 
high unemployment and poverty in the region.  In the 
Waterberg District Municipality, over half its 600,000 
residents live in poverty and the official unemployment rate 
is 31%.  The unofficial unemployment rate, which excludes 
those who have stopped looking for work, is almost certainly 
higher.  Waterberg residents, including the Tswana, Basotho, 
and Bapedi ethnic groups, are scattered across an area of 
44,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of The 
Netherlands.  The Vhembe Municipality is less than half the 
size of Waterberg, but has twice as many people as well as 
higher poverty and unemployment levels.  Vhembe's 1.2 million 
residents, primarily from the Venda ethnic group, endure an 
official unemployment rate that is over 50%.  Over 60% of 
Vhembe residents live in poverty. 
 
ANC Will Dominate; Voter Turnout Should Be Lower 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶4. (SBU) The ANC should win an overwhelming number of the 
municipal councilor seats in the March 1 election.  The ANC 
has historically dominated the Waterberg and Vhembe 
Municipalities of Limpopo, with 80%-90% of the electorate 
supporting the party in the last elections.  The Mayor of 
Makhado (Vhembe) even seemed slightly embarrassed of the 
prospect that the opposition might not win any seats at all. 
The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) and the 
Democratic Alliance (DA) are the only other parties likely to 
attract a share of the votes.  Other political parties that 
have a presence in the area are the United Democratic 
Movement (UDM), Independent Democrats (ID), Freedom Front, 
and local Shangaan parties in the eastern portion of Vhembe. 
Many of those who were not chosen as ANC candidates are 
running as independents.  Local leaders and residents did not 
 
PRETORIA 00000844  002 OF 004 
 
 
predict, however, that independents will win many seats, if 
any. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Overall, the mood of the electorate was mixed, with 
some residents clearly frustrated and unsure if they would 
vote, and others more positive and staunchly behind the ANC. 
Most local politicians were optimistic that voters would turn 
out to support them.  Other leaders were more candid, 
admitting that a lower turnout could reflect frustrations 
with local government and voter apathy.  Some residents 
reportedly plan to boycott the elections or vote for 
opposition parties, most notably youth groups and others who 
do not approve of the ANC candidate selection process.  A 
voting boycott movement has been rumored to have garnered 
support in the Waterberg Municipality. 
 
Local Government Complaints 
--------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Many residents questioned the effectiveness of 
current municipal councilors.  These residents complained 
that they have little contact with their municipal councilors 
and that they were only getting to know them during the 
election campaign.  The Vhembe Mayor explained that some 
councilors have to balance a full-time job, such as school 
principal or nurse, with their municipal duties, but admitted 
that contact with residents could be improved.  To combat 
this image, most of the municipalities visited were working 
to improve local government's communication with its 
residents by improving their ward committee operations, 
coordinating with traditional leaders, and holding imbizos 
(community meetings).  This effort has kept relative 
stability in the area, while other provinces have been faced 
with unrest.  Local leaders have found that once the 
challenges to service delivery are explained, most residents 
seem to understand and support their efforts. 
 
¶7. (SBU) One exception to the province's stability was a 
recent protest in the Bela-Bela Township of Waterberg. 
Residents burned tires and dust pans in the streets to 
protest against local government, ostensibly for selling land 
with an informal settlement on it to a white man.  EconOff 
was told that bulldozers later cleared out the informal 
shacks that were on the land.  The police dispersed the 
protesters, allegedly led by young communist party members, 
with rubber bullets.   In Mookgophong (Waterberg), another 
youth group submitted a petition to protest, but local 
government denied the request. 
 
Relative Successes: Housing and Electricity 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) The Vhembe and Waterberg Municipalities claim 
housing and electricity delivery as relative successes.  In 
Vhembe, less than 3% of households do not have formal housing 
(i.e., they live in a temporary shack), making it one of the 
ten best District Municipalities in housing delivery.  About 
15% do not live in formal housing in Waterberg, but this is 
still lower than many other municipalities in South Africa. 
In Thulamela (Vhembe), 16,500 houses have been built since 
¶2000.  In Makhado (Vhembe), they have built 9,000 houses 
since 2000.  One factor working in Limpopo's favor is that in 
the rural areas land is more abundant and people are 
accustomed to providing their own housing.  Therefore, rural 
residents do not demand or wait for government-provided 
housing as they do in urban areas.  The varied and larger 
than average houses that you see in rural Limpopo provide 
testimony for this factor, specifically in the Vhembe 
Municipality. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Informal squatter camps are an issue closer to the 
more urban areas, especially along the N1 highway that runs 
from Pretoria to Zimbabwe.  Immigrants from Zimbabwe as well 
as other African countries live in many of these communities. 
 Municipal governments have given priority attention to 
building houses for these informal households, but this will 
only apply to those who are South African citizens. 
Waterberg plans to build 1,000 houses this year and an 
additional 1,000 the next year in an effort to reduce the 
size of its informal squatter camps. 
 
¶10. (SBU) The Vhembe and Waterberg Municipalities have not 
been as successful with electricity delivery as housing, but 
 
PRETORIA 00000844  003 OF 004 
 
 
have still made some strides given their challenges of 
servicing hundreds of rural villages.  About 35% of 
households remain without electricity in Waterberg, while 
about 39% of households lack electricity in Vhembe.  In 
Makhado (Vhembe), they have electrified 45,000 households, 
but a backlog of 30,000 to 35,000 households still exists. 
This backlog includes only 26 villages out of the 280 total 
villages in the municipality.  In Thulamela (Vhembe), 168 of 
438 villages need to be electrified.  Community savings 
programs are in process to meet this need.  These programs 
involve households saving R1,000 ($165) to donate 
collectively so that their house can be hooked up to the 
electricity grid. 
 
Water Delivery Problems Loom 
---------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Water delivery problems loom large in Limpopo and 
are the central concern among local leaders and residents. 
Hundreds of villages are scattered about the rural and 
mountainous landscape, making it difficult to stretch 
services to all areas.  The water infrastructure that does 
exist is old and lacked proper maintenance for a number of 
years.  Currently, about 32% of Waterberg households and 41% 
of Vhembe households do not have piped water within 200 
meters of their homes.  For these reasons, Limpopo is not 
likely to meet comply with national government's goal of 
delivering water to all households by 2008. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Currently, boreholes are the primary source of 
water in many areas, which inconsistently provide a water 
supply.  Many residents have to walk for miles to get water 
or are fetching water from local streams.  In addition, 
certain residents that operate the boreholes charge other 
residents for the water they use.  The quality of water is 
also an issue, as the Thulamela area of the Vhembe 
Municipality did suffer a recent cholera outbreak. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Many municipal leaders spoke of needing a reliable 
water supply to ensure economic growth.  Mining exploration 
in the Waterberg Municipality has been restricted by water 
constraints and the Makhado Municipality (Vhembe) struggles 
to supply a growing Air Force base in the area.  Local 
government lacks the resources to implement a plan quick 
enough despite its dedication to fix the water problem.  Dams 
in the area provide plentiful sources of water, but the main 
obstacle is upgrading and building the infrastructure to 
deliver the water to all areas.  For example, the Makhado 
Municipality spoke of a five-year plan to put this 
infrastructure in place; however, the municipality faces this 
challenge without a civil engineer on their staff. 
 
Other Challenges 
---------------- 
 
¶14. (SBU) A myriad of other challenges face municipalities in 
Limpopo.  Roads, education, financial management, health, 
land reform, and sanitation issues to name a few: 
 
-- Roads.  Most village roads are not paved and are in poor 
condition, especially since the heavy rains of the current 
summer. 
 
-- Education.  Less than 15% of Limpopo residents over the 
age 20 have a grade 12 education.  Many children are 
instructed under trees, as proper classrooms have not been 
built. 
 
-- Financial Management.  Rate collections are poor and the 
pace of budget spending is slower than desirable.  New 
billing systems have been implemented at the District and 
Local levels in Vhembe. 
 
-- Health.  Established clinics and hospitals operate in most 
communities, but they lack the trained staff to deal with the 
workload.  Funeral parlors continue to spring up around the 
region as a result of increased deaths caused by HIV/AIDS. 
In Makhado, the Mayor stated that they lose two to three 
municipal employees a month from AIDS. 
 
-- Land reform.  Most farms in the municipalities visited 
were white owned.  Blacks do own some farms as a result of 
land reform, but the land restitution and redistribution 
 
PRETORIA 00000844  004 OF 004 
 
 
process continues.  Local leaders were mostly positive about 
this process and did not foresee major problems in this area. 
 
 
-- Sanitation/Refuse Services.  The municipalities visited 
have mostly ignored the delivery of sanitation (i.e., flush 
toilets) or refuse removal services at this point.  About 60% 
of Waterberg residents are living without sanitation 
services, while 80% of Vhembe residents suffer the same fate. 
 Municipal governments have chosen to focus on the basics of 
water, electricity, and housing, which means that residents 
will be using bucket or pit toilets and taking care of their 
own trash for awhile. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶15. (SBU) Many residents in the Vhembe and Waterberg 
Municipalities are living without basic services, but are 
peacefully at odds with their local government.  Residents 
are critical of their local leaders and pace of service 
delivery, but are not ready to abandon their loyalty to the 
ANC government.  If local government can overcome its 
capacity constraints, communicate with its citizens, and make 
steady progress on its service delivery challenges, the ANC 
should remain dominant in this region for years to come.  If 
the ANC cannot deliver on its promises in the future, the 
door could open slightly for the opposition to increase its 
influence. 
TEITELBAUM