Cuban
doctors in SA see red
News24.com.
South Africa, October 20, 2003.
Pietermaritzburg - Cuban doctors have lodged
complaints of gross human rights violations
with the Human Rights Commission in regard
to the government-to-government agreement
between Cuba and South Africa.
One of the alleged human rights violations
includes the dismissal of seven Limpopo
doctors, which was to be opposed in the
Johannesburg labour court on Monday with
an application against the department of
health to honour their contracts.
In what the doctors believe is "a
revenge attack" after a Special Assignment
programme about their plight in December,
two Pietermaritzburg specialists were told
to expect dismissal letters, while seven
Cuban doctors in Limpopo allegedly were
given the chop on Friday.
In a meeting on Thursday, described as
"no match for the Spanish inquisition",
Cuban officials allegedly told Dr Mario
Menchero, a Cuban orthopaedic surgeon at
Grey's Hospital, Pietermaritzburg, that
he was a "traitor" who did not
deserve to be on the Cuban programme.
The meeting came after Menchero's cancellation
of his Cuban Communist Party membership
after he openly said he could "no longer
support the party's principles.
Cuban house confiscated
An Edendale surgeon received a similar
threat when he refused to send his 15-year-old
daughter back to Cuba in January - a requirement
of a new contract, given to the doctors
in December, last year.
Besides the looming dismissal, further
action was taken against the doctor.
The doctor said: "They confiscated
my house in Cuba and my savings account,
with my pension money, has been frozen.
My daughter is very confused," the
doctor said, adding that he would not consider
splitting his family.
Of the 10 children who were forced to return
in January after their 15th birthdays, only
one reached Cuba.
Three parents refused to send their children
back, four families absconded in Spain,
one child was "late" and missed
the plane and another had "a fit"
and was given one month to recover.
The seven doctors in Limpopo are still
recovering from the shock of being given
48 hours to leave the hospitals where they
have been working.
Some refuse to send their children back
One of the doctors in Makopane (Potgietersrus),
who lives on the hospital premises, was
given 24 hours to vacate his house.
According to a letter by the Limpopo health
department, the doctors "opted out
of the Cuba/South Africa agreement ... opting
out of the agreement has implications on
relations between the republics of Cuba
and South Africa."
The doctors said they were being "punished"
because they either applied for permanent
South African residence, or for requesting
not to go to on the annual compulsory holdiday
to Cuba, or refusing to send their children
back after they turned 15.
One of the dismissed doctors apparently
previously defected to Spain so that he
wouldn't lose his South African wife, after
a threat that his passport would be confiscated
in Cuba.
A letter by Cuban co-ordinator Dr Jaime
Davis, of which the Witness has a copy,
informed the Limpopo health department that
the Cuban health minister wanted these doctors
out of the programme because they had asked
for permanent residence.
No Cuban doctor, married to a Cuban spouse,
should be granted permanent residence.
About 200 doctors have absconded
Sibani Mngadi, spokesperson for Health
Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, denied
that Cuba had threatened to cancel the agreement
because they were losing doctors, who applied
for permanent residence or absconded to
other countries.
Apparently, close to 200 doctors have absconded
since 1996.
Mngadi said both parties recommitted themselves
at the end of last year.
"The provinces need more Cuban doctors.
Requests from all provinces last month totalled
361 doctors and specialists needed in addition
to about 450 already working in South Africa.
"KwaZulu-Natal, alone, has asked for
more than 120."
In a letter to an Inkatha Freedom Party
MP, Tshabalala-Msimang recently refused
to reinstate a Cuban doctor in the Eastern
Cape after he had been allegedly dismissed
and thrown into the Umtata prision.
She said he was employed under the SA/Cuba
agreement and her approval of his request
to be reinstated would compromise the relations
between the two countries.
Davis declined to comment, despite a fax
and a follow-up call.
The "dismissal" of experienced
doctors in South Africa, which thousands
of South African doctors are opting to quit,
will leave critical gaps.
According to Dr Elmarie Pieterse, the dismissal
of her specialist physician husband will
have serious implications for the intensive-care
unit at Warmbaths Hospital in Bela Bela.
"There are two patients connected
to ventilators. With no other experienced
doctor to run the facility, it may as well
close down."
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