VZCZCXRO2241
RR RUEHDU RUEHJO
DE RUEHSA #2219/01 2831348
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 091348Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5963
INFO RUEHOR/AMEMBASSY GABORONE 5364
RUEHSB/AMEMBASSY HARARE 3728
RUEHTO/AMEMBASSY MAPUTO 5953
RUEHTN/AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN 6111
RUEHDU/AMCONSUL DURBAN 0251
RUEHJO/AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 8459

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRETORIA 002219 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM SF
SUBJECT: EXPANDING PUBLIC SERVICES TO SOUTH AFRICA'S RURAL 
POOR 
 
REF: PRETORIA 2144 
 
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Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  In a continuing series of USG-funded dialogues between 
rural communities and local government representatives 
(reftel), SAG officials briefed poor rural women of Limpopo 
Province on their rights to SAG assistance and on the 
mechanisms for accessing public services.  Officials listed 
an array of available monetary and food grants and noted the 
SAG was working to adjust them to discourage dependency on 
high numbers of children as a sole source of income.  SAG 
offered loans to start up small business cooperatives, with 
project advisors to help communities of low literacy 
formulate plans.  Speakers said public housing was expanding 
with help from the EU, although they acknowledged the 
waitlist was still over a decade long.  End Summary. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Background: DHRF Grant to Hurisa 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  On October 3 poloff attended a second of nine 
USG-sponsored forums led by the Human Rights Institute of 
South Africa (Hurisa) to improve awareness among rural women 
of their socio-economic rights and entitlements to basic 
government services.  The workshops are funded by a $27,000 
grant from DRL's annual Democracy and Human Rights Fund 
(DHRF).  The project began with a train-the-trainer workshop 
in Johannesburg to coach nine social workers from three of 
South Africa's poorest and most neglected provinces -- 
Northwest (reftel), Limpopo, and Eastern Cape.  Participants 
will then lead workshops in their home areas for a minumum of 
15 local community members. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Limpopo: Hardscrabble Subsistence 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  Limpopo Province, in South Africa's far northeast 
bordering Zimbabwe and Botswana, is one of the country's 
poorest regions of small rural villages and little 
infrastructure.  Its Capricorn District is reminiscent of the 
American Southwest -- arid, rocky, and red-soiled, where 
cattle graze on sparse scrub brush amid spiky aloe and 
candelabra cactii.  In many of these villages the population 
live off livestock and subsistence crops, with water supplied 
weekly by tanker trucks.  Hurisa's workshop was held in the 
town of Haenertsberg, the center of a timber industry amid 
pine forests sewn two generations ago in low foothills fed by 
dammed streams.  The lumber mill is the main local employer 
and also a prominent sponsor of many community programs. 
 
---------------------------- 
Community Needs for SAG Help 
---------------------------- 
 
¶4.  The day began with a brainstorming session, inviting the 
community's suggestions of problems it wanted government 
officials to address.  (Hurisa later explained offline that 
while participants in the Northwest Province were versed on 
their rights and ready to challenge the SAG on non-delivery, 
in Limpopo the awareness of SAG programs was so low that 
dialogue had to begin on far more basic terms.)  As their 
main concerns the audience listed HIV/AIDS education, the 
impact of HIV/AIDS on children and orphan-led households, 
illiteracy and adult education, unemployment, alcohol abuse, 
livestock theft, access to electricity and water, and 
financial grants.  Each SAG speaker then related his or her 
department's programs to this list of community priorities. 
 
------------------------ 
Grants -- and Dependency 
------------------------ 
 
¶5.  The Department of Social Development (DSD)'s Charles 
Q5.  The Department of Social Development (DSD)'s Charles 
Chuene outlined DSD programs.  These included counseling by 
social workers for dispute resolution within families and 
villages, and by probation officers assigned to protect and 
supervise minors charged with crimes.  DSD's main offer, 
however, was its menu of monetary grants, such as for child 
support, care of relatives, disability, and old age.  Early 
child development (ECD) initiatives supplied nutritious meals 
through preschools, while a "relief of social distress" (RSD) 
 
PRETORIA 00002219  002 OF 002 
 
 
grant delivered food parcels to struggling families.  The 
latter RSD grants required referral by village chiefs. 
Acknowledging the prevalent pattern in Limpopo of couples 
having more children as a source of grant income, Chuene 
noted DSD had proposed an alternative 'minimum income grant' 
to avert dependency on child grants. 
 
--------------------------- 
Incentives to Entrepreneurs 
--------------------------- 
 
¶6.  Yvonne Ledwaba of the Department of Economic Development, 
Environment, and Tourism (DEDET) explained the workings of 
SAG loans to encourage formation of small business 
cooperatives.  Advisors were available to help develop 
proposals for funding.  An annual entrepreneurship 
competition offered a prize of 200,000 Rand ($25,000) to the 
winning business plan, such as for a bakery or beauty salon. 
A previous winner for a business building pit toilets was now 
expanding into the molding manufacture of component parts. 
In anticipation of the wave of FIFA World Cup tourism in 
2010, Ledwaba urged her audience to study their grandmothers' 
skills in sewing and beadwork to make crafts for sale to 
foreign visitors.  "That family education is free," she said, 
"And you can even charge tourists to watch you work!" 
 
¶7.  Hurisa's program officer Elvis Fokala challenged Ledwaba 
to adjust DEDET initiatives to Limpopo realities.  While 
business plans might be fine for urban entrepreneurs, women 
in Limpopo had more basic worries like food security, 
obtaining seeds to grow vegetables, and access to water.  Low 
literacy meant many could not even write a business plan. 
How, asked Fokala, could small villages mobilize to assert 
their urgent needs to the SAG?  Ledwaba responded that SAG 
had in 2003 created a corps of provincial Community 
Development Workers (CDWs) assigned to visit villages, audit 
the needs of communities and households, and coordinate 
assistance across SAG departments.  A CDW could help a 
village form a cooperative, enlist DEDET skills to draft a 
project plan, and tap into DSD for funding. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
New Public Housing; Corruption Hotline 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  The Department of Local Government and Housing's 
representative spoke about public housing, commonly referred 
to as 'RDP' housing (after the Reconstruction and Development 
Plan).  These were funded by the SAG and donated to 
municipalities, lately with greater oversight from onsite 
project coordinators to ensure proper fulfilment after some 
projects reported as complete were discovered to have never 
been built.  An injection of European Union funding had 
boosted the housing program in Limpopo.  One group of local 
women had formed a construction cooperative to build their 
own housing.  The latest RDP model, formerly just two rooms, 
had expanded to two bedrooms, a dining area, and an indoor 
toilet.  All new homes had electricity and running water, 
which were gradually being added on to older projects. 
 
¶9.  The subject of allocation of RDP housing generated lively 
interest.  The waitlist for RDP homes dated back to 1994, and 
quirks in the system meant that later applicants sometimes 
received housing sooner.  One participant alleged there were 
cases of municipal officials selling RDP houses for bribes. 
Such complaints were common, admitted the Housing rep, so SAG 
had created a confidential telephone hotline to report 
fraudsters.  The audience grew animated at this news and 
Qfraudsters.  The audience grew animated at this news and 
avidly noted the number.  When Hurisa's Fokala asked for a 
show of hands of participants living in RDP houses, none were 
raised.  Participants said they still lived under the 
authority of tribal chiefs.  For this reason, said the SAG 
speaker, the Department of Housing had been merged with that 
of Traditional Affairs in some other provinces. 
 
LA LIME