Clinton declares US-South Africa ties on the mend

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Clinton was in her element as she worked rope lines at the project on the outskirts of Cape Town that she had toured by herself in 1997 and then again in 1998, with her husband, President Bill Clinton, in tow to see the progress.

On her third trip, she grinned broadly and danced with an a cappella group as it sang a tribute to her with the refrain "Heel-er-ee." A ragtag marching band welcomed her to the Victoria Mxenge Housing Project, which has grown from 18 to 579 homes since she first came. It got under way in the early 1990s with U.S. money.

"Thank you for the progress report, I am very pleased," she said. "Congratulations."

At a second development run by the same organization, a smiling Clinton helped clear some rubble from a construction site and planted flowers and a tree outside an unfinished home.

"This is what I really believe in," she said. "I mean, I have traveled literally all over the world and when people organize themselves and are given the tools and the training to really empower themselves and their future and build houses and communities, that’s what’s lasting."

She then borrowed $50 from an aide to make a contribution to a community savings venture that helps pay for construction.

Clinton arrived in Cape Town on the Atlantic Coast from the capital, Pretoria, and the Indian Ocean port of Durban, where she met Saturday with the new South African president, Jacob Zuma, on a mission to improve America‘s relationship with Africa‘s most prosperous nation.

Source: chron.com