VZCZCXRO0285
RR RUEHDU RUEHJO
DE RUEHSA #0728/01 1051146
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151146Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8098
INFO RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 1320
RUEHSB/AMEMBASSY HARARE 3828
RUEHTN/AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN 6746
RUEHDU/AMCONSUL DURBAN 0864
RUEHJO/AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 9094

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRETORIA 000728 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/S, PRM FOR M.LANGE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREF SOCI ASEC CASC SF ZI
SUBJECT: PRETORIA PROPOSAL -- FY'09 TAFT FUND FOR REFUGEES 
 
REF: A. STATE 14280 
     ¶B. CARRAWAY-LANGE EMAIL OF 14 APRIL 2009 
 
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Summary 
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¶1.  Post hereby submits a proposal (ref B) for PRM's FY 2009 
Julia V. Taft Fund for Refugees (ref A), recommending a grant 
of $20,000 to Ikenze Kungwe Mazwi Community College, a 
start-up elementary and high school serving children of 
Zimbabwean migrants in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.  Funds will be 
used to purchase PCs and printers for a student computer 
room, microscopes and electronic equipment for a science lab, 
and a long list of basic text books.  Given the increased 
influx of Zimbabwean migrants into South Africa in the last 
year, many of them coming to Hillbrow, these teaching aids 
are intended to bridge the gap until the College can sustain 
itelf with government support.  End Summary. 
 
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Project: Purchase of School Equipment 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  Proposed purchases fall into three categories: computer 
room equipment, science lab equipment, and a school library 
of teaching textbooks.  For the computer room, an existing 
facility with a dedicated teacher but insufficient stations 
for teaching entire classes, are budgeted 30 desktop 
computers (the largest line-item purchase, for about $13,500) 
and three laser printers.  The science laboratory's largest 
purchases for biology and physics courses are three 
microscopes and three oscilloscopes alongside various other 
electronic meters, gauges, and experiment kits.  Books 
encompass a full range of standard subjects for grades four, 
five, six, and seven.  The proposal's budget appendix offers 
a detailed shopping list, including actual price quotes 
obtained from suppliers.  The total of the three areas -- 
about $14,000 for computers, $3,000 for science, and $8,000 
for books -- exceeds the grant value of $20,000, but that 
total is made up of many discreet items that can easily be 
pruned to the budget ceiling. 
 
¶3.  Given the nature of this proposal as a one-time 
procurement, rather than a year-long performance of an 
activity, Post recommends an accelerated timetable for 
disbursement.  We suggest we divide the grant in two tranches 
of $10,000, per usual practice, in order to verify that money 
is spent correctly; but immediately on verification of the 
first tranche of receipts we ask that we may disburse the 
second tranche of $10,000 without waiting for midyear. 
 
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Recipient: School Assisting Zimbabweans 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  Izenzo Kunge Mazwi ("Action Talks Louder than Words") 
Community College was opened in July 2006 in the immigrant 
district of Hillbrow to serve foreign migrants' children from 
kindergarten through grade 12.  While its 700 students 
represent 14 nationalities, the students are overwhelmingly 
Zimbabwean, reflecting the lion's share of English-speaking 
migrants in the area.  Accomodating migrants' often sudden or 
unplanned movements, the College takes in new students at any 
time during the school year, not just on the government's 
annual defined entry dates.  It also takes a flexible 
attitude toward identity documents, a hurdle for many migrant 
children to gain admission to SAG schools.  These two 
policies minimize the disruption of schooling often faced by 
children in displaced families.  Judith Sidambe Ncube, the 
school's passionate and persistent director, began calling 
refoff last year urging a visit, then conducted a two-hour 
Qrefoff last year urging a visit, then conducted a two-hour 
tour of every classroom (in a high-rise facility that seems 
to be an abandoned state school) cataloguing every need. 
Refoff sees good potential for positive press coverage of a 
handover of school supplies by our chief of mission. 
 
------------------------------------ 
Criteria: Tangible, Urgent, Long-Use 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶5.  Through outreach to refugee NGOs and their networks, Post 
was able to elicit 13 proposals this year, among them some 
very good options for PRM funds.  Our six-member selection 
committee of political, economic, public affairs, and USAID 
officers initially had individual preferences for eight of 
the proposals -- a good sign of a reasonably high standard of 
 
PRETORIA 00000728  002 OF 002 
 
 
submissions -- but was able quickly to converge on three 
finalists.  We liked the African Disabled Refugee 
Organisation (ADRO)'s plan to send Cape Town asylum seekers 
to job-training courses at a local community college, which 
could potentially create income for migrant families; but 
past experience made us hesitant over job placement rates. 
Similarly we very much liked the Tshwane Leadership 
Foundation's concept of community-based action to discourage 
xenophobia and promote non-violence, action which is 
desperately needed in South Africa, but the proposal was not 
specific enough on the nature of its interventions for us to 
feel we could verify its impact.  In the end we agreed on 
Ikenze's request, as a very tangible contribution to a 
community of new arrivals with urgent needs.  The equipment 
and books will have immediate benefit but are also likely to 
be used for years to come. 
 
LA LIME