INTRODUCTION
The East and South African-German Centre for Educational Methodologies and Management (CERM-ESA) is one of ten African-German Centres of Excellence spread across the continent. The African Excellence programme funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) aims at producing highly qualified future managers and leaders in Africa and each centre provides a link between African and German higher education institutions. Initially, the focus of CERM-ESA was on supervision support, scholarships for Master’s and Doctoral students and research. This focus has been extended and now includes teaching and learning and community engagement. It is this wider vision of CERM-ESA which initiated the CABLES project. The CERM-ESA Capacity Building Programme for Lecturers and Supervisors (CABLES) programme is designed to support academics participating in DAAD funded Centres of African Excellence throughout Africa.
The first offering of CABLES that kicked off at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa targeted Centres of Excellence in Southern Africa, namely the South African-German Centre for Development Research, the South African-German Centre for Transnational Criminal Justice, the Namibian-German Centre for Logistics and delegates from the South African component of the East and South Africa-German Centre for Educational Research Methodologies and Management. The second offering of CABLES will target Centres of Excellence in East Africa, namely the Tanzanian-German Centre of Excellence for Law University of Dar es Salaam, the Kenyan-German Centre of Excellence for Mining, Environmental Engineering and Resource Management, the Centre of Excellence for ICT in East Africa and delegates from the East African component of the East and South Africa-German Centre for Educational Research Methodologies and Management. The aim of the CABLES programme is to support the work already being done at African-German Centres of Excellence in terms of teaching and research supervision. The target audience is lecturers and supervisors who contribute to the success of African-German Centres of Excellence and who carry a substantial teaching and supervision load. Funding for travel, subsistence and study fees is provided by the DAAD