R 230800Z DEC 08
FM AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 2915
INFO AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 
AMCONSUL DURBAN 
AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG

UNCLAS CAPE TOWN 000255 
 
 
PLEASE PASS TO AF/S, RUSH MARBURG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON KHIV SOCI SA
SUBJECT: A TRIP TO THE EASTERN CAPE:  POSITIVE STEPS 
UNDERWAY TO TURN THE PROVINCE AROUND 
 
REF: CAPE TOWN 98 
 
¶1.  Summary:  The Eastern Cape has the dubious reputation of 
being the most poorly managed province in South Africa. 
Nevertheless, Cape Town Consul General and Econoff found a 
variety of organizations and individuals in business, civil 
society and the government who are developing or implementing 
initiatives that are making a difference in the province. 
One such initiative involves a public/private partnership 
(PPP) that provides outreach programs to businesses and their 
employees on HIV/AIDS awareness, counselling, testing and 
treatment.  Another non-governmental organization (NGO), set 
up by a former International Visitor, advocates for women and 
girls who are victims of violence.  The Director and members 
of her organization recently served on a committee advising 
the government on the new Sexual Offences Act.  Still another 
enterprising woman has established a community library as 
part of her Institute of Training and Education for Capacity 
Building in East London.  In addition, three staff members 
from the Eastern Cape Director General's office discussed 
various initiatives that the new Eastern Cape Provincial 
Government plans to undertake in the education and health 
sectors to turn around earlier dismal performance.  Finally, 
an Anglican priest working for the Eastern Cape AIDS Council 
and a Deputy Newspaper Editor talked about their respective 
efforts to encourage residents and other stakeholders to be 
more proactive in their neighborhoods.  End Summary. 
 
 
Siyakhana, a Public/Private Partnership, Takes HIV/AIDS 
Awareness to the Workplace 
 
¶2.  Consul General and Econoff made a series of courtesy 
calls to a number of individuals and organizations on a 
recent visit to the Eastern Cape.  These individuals, who 
come from the business community, civil society and the 
government, talked about efforts and programs that seek to 
improve the lives of Eastern Cape residents.  Siyakhana 
Director Dr. Simeon Odugwu spoke to Econoff on the sidelines 
of a breakfast meeting held by the Border-Kei Chamber of 
Business in East London.  He indicated that DaimlerChrysler, 
the Border-Kei Chamber of Business (BKCOB)and German 
development agency DEG jointly established Siyakhana, a PPP, 
to provide participating small and medium-sized companies 
with HIV/AIDS awareness training, counselling, testing, 
treatment, care, support and impact mitigation.  The 
companies pay a nominal fee to participate in the program, 
and the initiative is available to employees' 
partners/spouses and up to three children per family. 
Siyakhana has so far offered voluntary counselling and 
testing to over 7,000 employees, with 4,656 participating in 
the programs.  3,078 of these employees have taken HIV tests 
and a further 267 have been referred to treatment programs. 
At this time, HIV positive employees receive ARVs through a 
private sector treatment network owing to capacity 
constraints in the public health sector.  However, Dr. Odugwu 
hopes that in the longer term, patients will be able to 
access similar treatment in public clinics and hospitals. 
Through programs like Siyakhana's, employers hope to keep HIV 
positive employees healthy and economically active longer, 
thus producing a win-win situation for everyone. 
 
 
Masimanyane, an Advocate for Women and Girls 
 
¶3.  Masimanyane Women's Support Centre is a non-profit 
international women's organization located in East London. 
Dr. Lesley Foster, its CEO and Director, explained the work 
of her organization to the Consul General and Econoff during 
Qof her organization to the Consul General and Econoff during 
their recent visit.  Established fourteen years ago, the 
Centre began simply as a support group for women but quickly 
became involved in advocacy work.  Masimanyane now has nine 
offices and 150 volunteers who work in townships and rural 
areas providing educational and prevention information about 
violence against women and girls.  The Centre is also 
conducting research on the effectiveness of prevention 
programs on violence among pre-teens and teenagers. 
Moreover, the organization works with area police to 
intervene and provide shelter to victims of violence.  Dr. 
Foster indicated that her organization receives funding from 
the Scandinavian countries as well as The Netherlands and 
Germany.  She noted, however, that although the South African 
government holds Masimanyane in high regard, it is still very 
difficult to get any type of government funding. 
 
¶4.  Dr. Foster philosophized that violence against women is 
ultimately a violation of women's human rights.  The 
violence, she maintains, stems mainly from patriarchal and 
negative religious attitudes towards women.  She noted that 
although the government had enacted legislation criminalizing 
violence against women, there was still a big gap between the 
law and reality for many women and girls.  The link between 
the policy level and the CBO is weak.  Moreover, enforcement 
of the law, particularly in rape cases, was still lacking in 
many areas, especially rural areas where the most brutal 
violence occurred.  Dr. Foster proudly shared that she and 
several of her colleagues had sat on an advisory committee to 
the government during the drafting of the Sexual Offenses 
Act.  Her organization also came up with the idea for the 
nationally observed "Sixteen Days of Activism Against 
Violence." 
 
 
An Entrepreneur Goes the Extra Mile on Technical Training 
 
¶5.  Delores Athiemulam, who heads East London,s Institute of 
Training and Education for Capacity Building (ITEC) met with 
the Consul General and Econoff to discuss her organization's 
work with disadvantaged communities.  Ms. Athiemulam, a 
highly entrepreneurial woman and former Fulbrighter, spoke at 
length about her NGO, explaining that ITEC began as the first 
non-racial in-service training center for early childhood 
education in 1982.  More recently, ITEC has evolved into a 
technical training and job resource center for disadvantaged 
communities.  The resource center includes a community 
library with books, eighty-five computers and a television. 
Athiemulam shared that Exclusive Books, a South African 
on-line bookstore, had given ITEC R65,000 (USD 6,500) worth 
of books and paid for the library,s television.  ITEC has 
twenty-five trainers who work throughout the province. 
 
¶6.  Ms. Athiemulam explained that her organization now has 
fourteen different projects underway in different schools 
ranging from the primary to university level.  Other projects 
include setting up primary education systems, establishing 
community libraries, computer training for adults and 
training for HIV/AIDS caregivers.  She indicated that her 
computer training classes have mushroomed and have assisted 
graduates in finding employment.  Moreover, this training has 
now become a source of income generation for ITEC. 
Athiemulam shared that her center has its own sources of 
funding and receives no financial support from the provincial 
government. 
 
 
Director General's Staff Discuss New Strategies for the 
Province 
 
¶7.  Three staff members from the Eastern Cape Director 
General,s office met with Consul General and Econoff on a 
recent trip to Bhisho.  General Manager Laura Best, together 
with Senior Manager of International Relations & Protocol 
Sindiswa Mququ and General Manager of Intergovernmental 
Relations Nomatemba Mbete discussed several new strategies 
that are now being or will soon be implemented to alleviate 
poverty and promote economic growth in the province.  Best 
indicated that there are two main strategies underway.  The 
first one is an attempt to register all non-profit or small 
community-based organizations (NPOs/CBOs), which are 
providing various community services in the Eastern Cape. 
The provincial government aims to have a relatively complete 
registry of organizations in both rural and urban areas that 
disadvantaged communities can access for assistance.  The 
second initiative is called the cooperative strategy where 
small economic or business-related entities can register as 
cooperatives promoting greater economic participation among 
small businesses and farmers.  Best volunteered that the 
government was further along in implementing the first 
strategy.  The second one is a newer program. 
 
¶8.  The three staff members confided that service delivery, 
which has been notoriously bad in the Eastern Cape, was a 
Qwhich has been notoriously bad in the Eastern Cape, was a 
project management problem.  Best volunteered, however, that 
the provincial government was beginning to implement an 
accelerated delivery of services initiative in health and 
education services.  She pointed out that the previous 
provincial government had under funded education but quickly 
added that the recently appointed Premier had the political 
will to turn the sector around.  One of the main priorities 
is to get rid of the remaining mud schools in the province. 
Another is to adequately equip all public schools with 
furniture, teaching materials, and textbooks as well as 
ensuring a safe water supply, nutrition programs and fencing 
for security purposes.  Best continued, however, that the 
current inadequate supply of teachers was worrying.  She said 
that the province was looking at bringing in teachers from 
other countries to fill the gap. 
 
¶9.  In the health area, Best indicated that the provincial 
health department intends to ensure the adequate supply of 
antiretroviral medication (ARVs) to public clinics and 
hospitals around the province.  (Comment:  On an earlier trip 
to the Eastern Cape, various CBOs indicated that in rural 
areas, clinics did not have ARVs.  HIV positive patients had 
to hire transport to take them to a hospital in King Williams 
Town or East London to obtain the medication.  For children, 
ARVs are only available in East London.  End Comment.)  Ms. 
Mququ interjected that she had heard about PEPFAR's work on 
HIV/AIDS in the province and noted that it was making a 
difference.  She added that she hoped our grants would assist 
the CBO projects to become sustainable in the long term. 
 
¶10.  Best further advised that housing had become a 
stand-alone department in the provincial administration.  She 
shared that the province hopes to construct 15,000 units 
during this fiscal year and repair many others 
("rectification"), which were poorly constructed in the past. 
 Previously, there had not been adequate quality assurance 
standards she added. 
 
¶11.  The Director General's staff also asked about the 
possibility of the U.S. Peace Corps placing volunteers in the 
Eastern Cape to assist in institution building.  Ms. Mququ 
asserted that they would be very welcome.  She noted that New 
Zealand had a number of volunteers there already.  The Consul 
General promised to inquire about this possibility. 
(Comment:  Econoff had asked the Peace Corps Country Director 
earlier about the possibility of putting volunteers in the 
Eastern Cape.  He indicated that the Peace Corps would have 
to open a satellite office closer to the Eastern Cape before 
putting volunteers there.  End Comment.) 
 
 
Other Eastern Cape Strategies to Fight HIV/AIDS 
 
¶12.  Reverend Ntshingwa, an Anglican priest and the CEO of 
the Eastern Cape AIDS Council, elaborated on his 
organization's efforts to broaden AIDS partnerships in the 
province at a separate meeting with the Consul General and 
Econoff.  He believes that the province's HIV/AIDS 
multi-sectoral framework plan (reported in reference cable) 
will promote on-the-spot intervention through door-to-door 
campaigns.  At this time, the National Treasury is costing 
the plan.  Once the Treasury completes this process, the 
province will have a donors' conference to determine what can 
be funded from outside donors and what the government must 
fund.  As to provincial HIV/AIDS targets, Ntshingwa shared 
that the province hopes to halve the rate of new infections 
by 2011.  Over the past year, new infections increased by 1.4 
percent in the province.  It also hopes to have fifty percent 
of HIV infected residents on ARV medication and to increase 
accessibility of ARVs.  Ntshingwa believes access to 
treatment is a human right and that people have a right to 
adequate care. 
 
 
A Young Deputy Editor's Activism 
 
¶13.  East London's Daily Dispatch Deputy Editor Bongani 
Siqoko concluded Consul General's and Econoff's series of 
meetings in the Eastern Cape.  He described various 
initiatives underway at his newspaper.  He noted that the 
Daily Dispatch had been the newspaper that exposed the poor 
conditions and care at Eastern Cape public hospitals, 
specifically Frere Hospital, last year.  Siqoko indicated 
that "his" journalists are also now investigating an issue 
that may be bigger than the hospital scandal, but he did not 
elaborate.  In addition to pursuing investigative reporting, 
Siqoko shared that he is attempting to do more public or 
civic journalism to engage the general public on issues like 
the environment and the up-coming elections.  The Dispatch's 
periodic column on "Trash Busters" has spurred East London 
residents to report on illegal garbage dumps and other types 
of pollution.  Siqoko hopes that his newspaper will also 
Qof pollution.  Siqoko hopes that his newspaper will also 
encourage voters to take more proactive positions with 
selected candidates up for election.  Siqoko has been chosen 
to participate in the U.S. International Visitor Program 
early next year. 
 
 
A Surprising Postscript 
 
¶14.  Former Buffalo City Mayor Ntombentle Peter attended U.S. 
Consulate General Cape Town's Community Grants certificate 
granting ceremony on December 4 in King Williams Town.  She 
also gave a few words of praise and encouragement to the 
grantees.  The Mayor confided to the Consul General during 
lunch that her municipality had consistently earned high 
marks from the National Government until the change in 
administrations.  Afterwards, she indicated that nothing she 
did was right.  Newspaper reports indicated that Mayor Peter, 
who was an Mbeki appointee, had been voted out of office on 
Tuesday, December 9.  She was succeeded by Sakhumzi Caga. 
 
¶15.  Comment:  There is no question that the Eastern Cape has 
a lot of catching up to do, especially with regard to 
promoting economic growth and enhancing service delivery. 
However, the people encountered during this trip appeared to 
have a passion for their work and programs.  Even the Eastern 
Cape Government officials had the same passion and energy for 
their plans.  Hopefully, provincial officials will be able to 
follow-through on their plans and effectively implement them. 
 Project implementation in the Eastern Cape and in other 
areas of the country has often been woefully lacking.  If 
however, improved service delivery and higher economic growth 
happen, perhaps civil society, the private sector and the 
government can together provide a better environment for 
Eastern Cape residents.  End Comment. 
 
MAYBERRY