This report presents reflections on South African supporters of DOTS, the internationally recommended strategy for tuberculosis (TB) control. The DOTS strategy has been implemented on a national level in South Africa's fight against TB, and DOTS supporters are lay health workers who provide some of the services called for by the strategy. The report draws on qualitative data from the Western Cape metropolitan area and the Nyandeni district of the Eastern Cape. While the DOTS strategy has been widely implemented, still little understood are factors such as: the extent to which TB patients value it, the experiences of supporters in providing support, the necessary conditions for ensuring a successful support program, and the likelihood of successful integration of an HIV/AIDS program into a successful TB DOTS program. The research discussed in this report focused on exploring, from the providers' and consumers' perspectives, a range of organizational factors that are perceived to be necessary to facilitate the function of the DOTS supporters. The report concludes with recommendations to health providers and policy makers to improve the delivery of care to patients with TB. It asserts that before DOTS supporter programs are implemented in a community, the formal health facilities in the area need to be fully functional. It also concludes that for DOTS supporters to be effective, some sustainable form of incentives needs to be provided. (author's)