Cuban doctors in SA see red

2003-02-10 10:36

Christi Naude

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."

- The Witness