CODEL KERRY VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRETORIA 004231 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF, AF/S, H E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/10/2017 TAGS: OREP PGOV PINR PREL SF SUBJECT: CODEL KERRY VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA REF: CAPE TOWN 297 Classified By: PAS:MDCONNERS for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Senator John Kerry, accompanied by his wife, Ms. Teresa Heinz Kerry, and two staff members, visited South Africa November 18-28, 2007. Ms. Heinz Kerry, who attended school in South Africa, received an honorary doctorate from Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, of which she is an alumna, and delivered the university's commencement address. Senator Kerry, Ms. Heinz Kerry and staff also made stops in Cape Town and Durban where there were official meetings and site visits to PEPFAR (President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief) operations. Press coverage was limited but positive. The Senator contributed an op-ed to the Boston Globe upon his return to the U.S., in which he praised the work being done by PEPFAR in South Africa. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) Senator and Ms. Heinz Kerry met on November 20 in Cape Town with Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool. Most of the session was taken up by Rasool's message of moderation to his fellow Muslims. He had just returned -- disheartened -- from Istanbul, where he had participated in the Al Quds Forum Foundation meeting. The other participants in the Istanbul meeting were not interested in the Western Cape Muslim experience, which Rasool termed "golden nuggets." Muslims in South Africa are first South Africans and then Muslims, he said, and they are fully integrated into society. He contrasted this with the assimilation model (as the French demand assimilation) or isolation (as prevails in the UK, where people only need Urdu or Hindi). He said the South African Muslim experience did not fit in with the prevailing mood in the forum which was "it's time for jihad and to retake land by force." Rasool called this view "morality without wisdom." Kerry asked him if he were alone in these views. Rasool said, "No, more and more are joining but they need a theological basis, which I provide when I preach in the mosque." Even though forum participants ignored his message, Rasool said he got good media coverage on Turkish TV. The Kerry party also met with Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille (see Cape Town 297). The Kerry party attended Thanksgiving dinner at the Consul General's home, to which numerous prominent Capetonians were invited such as Zackie Achmat, Founder and Chairperson of the HIV/AIDS Treatment Action Campaign, Dr. Salie Abrahams, Vice Rector of the Islamic International Peace University of South Africa, and Mr. Michael Masutha, ANC Member of Parliament and Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development. ¶3. (U) The focus of Senator Kerry's 24-hour visit to Durban, November 23-24, was his interest in learning more about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) which has the highest rate of infection in South Africa. He also wanted to learn more about the role of the U.S.-funded PEPFAR program in addressing this issue. Ms. Heinz Kerry had also attended high school in Durban and was feted by the school there in a moving ceremony. Senator Kerry and Ms. Heinz Kerry visited a PEPFAR-funded orphans and vulnerable children program where caregivers provide after- school HIV/AIDS information classes for over 200 high-risk primary school children, as well as assist family members and guardians to care for HIV/AIDS-infected children. In the evening he attended a dinner at the Consul General's residence in his honor during which he met and discussed Qresidence in his honor during which he met and discussed HIV/AIDS and PEPFAR, as well as other health and education issues, with key political, health, education and religious leaders of KZN, including Dr. Albertina Luthuli (ANC MP and daughter of former ANC President and Nobel Prize winner Chief Albert Luthuli),Dr. Ela Gandhi (Chancellor of Durban University of Technology and granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi) and Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi (founder and President of the oppposition Inkatha Freedom Party). Before departing Durban, he had an hour-long interview with the Sunday Tribune in which he reiterated several key points made during his visit to Durban: he was a strong supporter of the PEPFAR program, having been one of the original drafters of the legislation establishing the program; there has always been bipartisan support in Congress for the legislation; and he anticipates that PEPFAR will continue under a new administration. ¶4. (C) Senator Kerry's program in Johannesburg November 24-28, included a visit to Soweto to the Hector Pieterson Museum, the Apartheid Museum, and to the Constitutional Court and meetings with Nelson Mandela and prominent ANC-affiliated businessman, Tokyo Sexwale. Only the Senator and Ms. Heinz Kerry were permitted to attend the meeting with Nelson PRETORIA 00004231 002 OF 002 Mandela. Senator Kerry said that Mr. Mandela was looking much frailer than he had expected. Of the upcoming ANC presidential election, Mandela told the Senator he had been hoping it would go Cyril Rhamaposa's way (prominent ANC-affiliated businessman),and that he was not at all happy with perceived front runner, ANC Deputy President Jacob Zuma, but that he felt it inappropriate to get too involved in the race. ¶5. (C) Senator Kerry's November 27 meeting with Tokyo Sexwale focused on the upcoming ANC presidency race. Sexwale told the Senator he had called Jacob Zuma in the morning, implying the two had reached a deal. Senator Kerry told Sexwale "a lot of people I've spoken to had thought this was your time," to which Sexwale said that he could wait another five years, and that he was keeping his options open concerning a future presidential run. Sexwale voiced mixed feelings about Zuma, but felt that this was Zuma's time, and that generational change in the ANC was another election away. He was scathing about current South African President Thabo Mbeki, saying Mbeki did not understand that he now had to quit, and expressed concern that Mbeki's stubbornness would damage the ANC's unity in the long run. Sexwale noted the visa ineligiblities for ANC senior leaders, and Senator Kerry offered to look into it. Sexwale also said the U.S. image was suffering terribly in South Africa because of Iraq. ¶6. (SBU) Ms. Teresa Heinz Kerry was the keynote speaker at the University of the Witwatersrand higher degrees education ceremony and dinner on November 27, at which she received an honorary doctorate. Ms. Heinz Kerry's speech called on her experiences as a student at Wits during the apartheid era (she graduated in 1960) in contrast to the different, but equally thorny, challenges of students today. At the dinner following the ceremony, the Consul General shared a table with the Kerrys, the Rector, the Vice Chancellor, and other Wits faculty. Table discussion included Senator Kerry's views of his presidential campaign, PEPFAR (he objected to the use of "President's" in the title saying it was inaccurate in that it had been a bipartisan effort) and AFRICOM. Other guests at the event included Ron Gault, a retired American investment banker who remains well-connected in South African business circles and well-known U.S. journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault, as well as some of Ms. Heinz Kerry's local friends. ¶7. (SBU) Senator Kerry requested meetings with South African government officials, including the President and Foreign Minister, which were unable to be accommodated by the South African government. The South African Department of Foreign Affairs did offer a meeting with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sue van der Merwe but indicated that the only possible date was November 28, after the Kerry party had departed South Africa. ¶8. (U) Senator Kerry did not have the opportunity to review this message prior to its transmittal. BOST