SAG "NEGLECTING" AND "FAILING" RURAL CONSTITUENTS,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRETORIA 002267

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/05/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PREF ELAB EAGR SF
SUBJECT: SAG "NEGLECTING" AND "FAILING" RURAL CONSTITUENTS,
SAY NGOS

REF: A. JOHANNESBURG 0152

B. PRETORIA 2112

C. 08 PRETORIA 2144

Classified By: Political Counselor Walter N.S. Pflaumer for reasons 1.4
(b) and (d)


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Summary
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1. (C) From October 21 to 23 emboffs visited rural
Mpumalanga province, where human rights NGOs said the SAG was
failing to protect the rural poor and neglecting to provide
public services to remote communities. While township
residents have protested violently over poor service
delivery, rural residents are said to have low expectations
of government. In a holdover from the apartheid era, many
rural women raise children on very few resources while their
husbands migrate to city jobs. Foreign migrants suffer the
highest rates of wage abuse, but they are unlikely to
complain for fear of deportation. Government housing is of a
shockingly poor calibre. Although the SAG legislates to the
highest of ideals, its execution continues to fall short,
especially outside urban centers. End Summary.

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Mpumalanga: Staid Farms, Angry Townships
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2. (U) In the northeast of South Africa bordering Swaziland
and Mozambique, Mpumalanga is a mainly rural province, home
to vast agricultural farms and the renowned Kruger Park
wildlife reserve. On large white-owned commercial farms,
serviced by black workers, the social structure is little
changed since 1994 (ref A). An "emergent" sector of small
black-owned farms has been carved from the former tribal
"homelands" of the apartheid era, as well as from the very
few land grants made through SAG land reform initiatives.
Pockets of industry are located in the west of the province,
closer to Pretoria and Johannesburg, worked by laborers
living in higher-density townships. The latter have grabbed
headlines recently (ref B) with violent and destructive
protests over non-delivery of public services and alleged
corruption among officials. Very high unemployment persists,
with many areas far exceeding the official 29 percent rate.

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SAG Services Uneven, or Absent
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3. (C) Human rights advocacy groups said few government
services were reaching farm communities. Elizabeth "Maki"
Molefe of The Rural Action Committee (TRAC) singled out the
Department of Social Development (DSD) for praise in helping
the poor access social grants, but she said other departments
were not getting into the field to cover remote rural areas.
In a hot dry region, Molefe implied that SAG officials prefer
the air-conditioned comfort of offices in the capital,
letting groups like TRAC instruct them on issues faced by
their constituencies. As for protection of farm hands' human
rights, Molefe said the Department of Labor (SADOL) "is
failing these workers," with inspectors who may be
indifferent, ignorant of rules, or even bribed by farm
owners. (Comment: the investigation process, comprised of a
short pre-formatted questionnaire and interviews conducted in
the presence of farm owners who can dismiss those who
complain, does lend itself to perfunctory visits. End
Comment.) Molefe's verdict on SAG performance was that by
and large "our government has neglected these people."

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Farm Workers' Low Expectations
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4. (C) If the rural poor have not protested poor service
delivery like their city cousins, it is not because they are
Qdelivery like their city cousins, it is not because they are
any less deprived (if anything they are more so),but rather
because they have essentially no expectations of the SAG.
Rural communities are used to going without services,
explained Molefe; they do not expect them, and they are
raised not to complain. Individuals are dispersed and
uninformed: "It's so sad... They don't know their own
entitlements." Large farms are run like worlds unto
themselves, where workers depend on farm owners, not the
state, to meet their needs. Asked what share of owners are
generous employers, Molefe said maybe one in ten. Unlike in
the Western Cape province, where farms are export-driven and

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sensitive to international scrutiny, "here there is no one
watching over their shoulder." TRAC runs weekend workshops
to help educate workers on their rights, but the balance of
power still favors the owners.

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Rural Women's Limited Options
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5. (SBU) Rural women bear an especially heavy burden, often
raising children alone with few resources or job options. In
the village of Nkomazi, Daphne Nkozi of the Community Legal
Advice Office described a common pattern (and apartheid
holdover) of husbands leaving to work in city factories,
while women and children are left behind in rural villages.
When a husband dies, his wife often does not know how to
claim his pension from his employer, or even in some cases
how to trace where he worked. In many cases, the husband has
rarely communicated with his wife and only come home a few
times a year, sometimes eventually vanishing altogether.


6. (SBU) Nkozi opened the Office to provide women with
paralegal support, and to dispense social grants on which she
estimates 90 percent of local women depend. Employment
opportunities for Nkomazi women are mainly domestic or farm
work, the latter requiring them to leave home as early as
3:30 a.m. and return after dark because of limited public
transport. Mostly absent, and largely illiterate, these moms
cannot be role models for their children, a problem
compounded by high rates of teacher absenteeism in schools.
Asked what single SAG program would provide the greatest
relief, Nkozi suggested economic development initiatives to
provide women with sustainable livelihoods. An in-town
processing plant for local crops, for example, would give
them reliable jobs nearer to home.

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Tensions with Foreign Migrants
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7. (SBU) Mpumalanga has its share of foreign migrants, with
farm workers from Mozambique and Swaziland making up as much
as half the labor force. Migrants are commonly said to work
harder and suffer more wage abuses than South Africans, yet
they are least likely to complain for fear of dismissal and
deportation. (Other than in immediate border areas they are
mostly documented with permits for farm work.) To inform
incoming migrants of their legal rights, TRAC holds seminars
at the border town -- informing newcomers of possible risks,
and hearing returnees' experiences of mistreatment. Sadly,
new "emergent" black-owned farms are reportedly worse than
white-owned ones, driven by profit to exploit migrants by
withholding wages and/or paying less than the minimum wage.
Nkozi said farm owners liked to hire compliant Mozambicans,
which incurred the resentment of South Africans. When the
migrants worked hard and rose to the ranks of managers, they
then preferred to hire fellow foreigners, further aggravating
tensions with nationals.

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House Collapses, but Loyalty Endures
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8. (C) Asked about SAG service delivery, Nkozi invited
emboffs to see for themselves by visiting two of her clients
who were recipients of government-provided houses under the
Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP) scheme. The
first client was a man in a wheel chair, which had given him
priority on the RDP waitlist but evidently no advantage in
terms of housing quality. Masonry was sloppy, with
untrowelled gobs of cement between cinder blocks, and there
Quntrowelled gobs of cement between cinder blocks, and there
were no holed bricks for ventilation beneath the roof (as
required). A shifting foundation had created centimeter-wide
fissures in walls and floors. The small space with toilet
promised indoor plumbing, except that the house was
unconnected to any water or sewage lines, so the toilet was
decorative only. (Note: asked about how such a shoddy job
could pass quality control, Nkozi said it was probably
subcontracted and not checked. By signing for the house, the
man had unwittingly vouched for his satisfaction with it, and
he now had no legal recourse. End Note.)


9. (SBU) Another client, an older man with one arm injured
in a sling, was living in his second RDP house after the
first had fallen in on him, rendering him henceforth unable
to work. The masonry on his second house was relatively
professional, but its roof of corrugated tin was unsealed
against rain, which explained the colorful collection of
buckets crowding the floors to catch leaks. A brand new dual

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sink sparkled in the kitchen, but as in the first house it
was unconnected to any water source. The man's "Vote ANC"
t-shirt prompted the obvious question of how satisfied he was
with his party's track record on services. The response was
emphatically positive: the ANC had won the liberation
struggle; he had actively supported them (as a one-timed
armed fighter) and would do so forever; and nothing else
mattered.

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COMMENT: Gilded Ideals, Grinding Reality
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10. (C) This visit reflects the familiar dichotomy of South
African governance: great laws, pity about the
implementation. Since the advent of democracy in 1994 South
Africa has drafted a world-class rights-based Constitution
and an exemplary body of law aiming for dignity, liberty, and
equality for all its people. After 15 years, the country
still struggles to make those noble principles a reality.
The SAG legislates to high ideals but is then unable to
execute, especially outside urban population centers as it is
plagued by skills shortages, graft, and corruption. It
promises rural development but is often absent in rural
areas. Its plans call for public services for the poor, but
RDP houses are a shocking display of disregard (or worse,
corruption). Its ethos is that of a rainbow nation with full
rights accorded to foreigners, but migrants are exploited at
every turn, not least by black farmers. While the township
protests show that some segments of society are fed up with
the SAG's poor performance, other groups remain docile, and
the ruling ANC has a base whose loyalty is unflinching even
when the roof caves in. End Comment.
GIPS