3 May 2020
The arrival on 27 April 2020 and with the accompanying fanfare (Fidel Castro's picture prominently displayed) for the 217 Cuban medics and technicians who are costing South Africans some R430million, comes with an easily recognisable agenda and a well recorded history, but with legitimate controversy. The South African Medical Association are puzzled and so is the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (DENOSA) as to why do South Africans do not come first. How competent are these Cubans and, do they speak any language other than Spanish, are further questions. One is thankful for help but then we are paying the bills, and if we don't need them, why must we have them?
The history goes back to Angola, South West Africa (Namibia) at the height of the Cold War in the 1970s and 1980s. The Communists, obviously, have their own gloss on that history. Happily, for those interested, there is not only the SACP and MK's version available but also a great deal of reputable literature about that conflict and not only in English but in Spanish, Russian and Afrikaans. Suffice it to say, the Cubans and the Russians discovered that the South Africans, since the First World War, have been and are, seriously good soldiers and that they are at home in Africa.
The ongoing agenda, however has been playing itself out since our elections in 1994. It is to show solidarity with Cuba for it's previous Cold War help to the "liberation struggle". The Cuban Communist Party and its government are not supporters of freedom and liberty but exhibit the well described traits of any totalitarian Communist regime. The SACP has a hegemony over the ANC, and blessing the Cubans is a key part of their agenda. One only has to observe the strong bias of ANC General Secretary Ace Magashule who enthusiastically sends students to Cuba to study in Spanish but objects to Afrikaans in South Africa as a medium of instruction. He’s clearly a Communist first and a South African second. Jacob Zuma went to Cuba in February 2020 and ostensibly for medical treatment. He probably, almost certainly, sought advice on how to deal with salvaging the "state capture" project.
The ANC enterprise to use Cuban doctors has been the most prominent element of the Agenda for socialist solidarity with Cuba. It is also effectively a project to move South African money to the Cuban government by exploiting the cheap labour of Cuban citizens who have no democratic rights. The medics that have been serving here, themselves receive a pittance of a salary. The Cuban Government, however, gets handsomely paid, presumably in US dollars.
One hopes that the opposition parties in Parliament will keep on asking probing questions on these funds. It is not unfair to compare the Cuban medics serving in South Africa to the Indian indentured labourers (mostly Tamil speaking from Chennai) who were brought to cut cane in Natal the 1850s. Another Southern African example is the payments in gold, not US dollars, and over many decades, to the Portuguese Government by the South African Government, for work done by Mozambican migrant miners in the Transvaal goldmines. For the sake of "socialist solidarity", the ANC government is prepared to co-operate with the Cuban government in this exploitation within South Africa, of Cuban citizens.
Furthermore, another “blessing“ for Cubans, who live on a relatively small island and speak only Spanish, was being paid to train our passport officers in 2013. Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma (SACP member) organised that lucrative deal for the Cubans. The Cubans brought to work alongside our SANDF personnel, come (organised by SACP member Mapisa Nqakula) at a high cost for the South African taxpayer but a windfall for the Cuban Government. The Cuban Military personnel are paid a pittance. Because of sanctions on Cuba by the USA and others, the South African Government can split hairs by declaring that it is paying for services, not breaking the sanctions conditions, which it does at South Africa’s peril. Cosatu and Nehawu, to their shame, choose to ignore this injustice but then they have close links to the SACP.
A further concern is that those people who have worked with Cuban doctors, both in South Africa and internationally, will describe them as poorly trained because of the limited scope of their medical training. Medical schools in Cuba allow students to specialise very early and before they have a thorough generalist medical knowledge. A Cuban doctor in an operating theatre in a South African hospital can actually be a danger to the South African surgical team who have all had a very good generalist medical education. Some Cuban doctors are on top of their game, but essentially in their specialist field.
Those healthcare professionals who have worked as colleagues and become friendly with these Doctors in our South African hospitals, have learnt that they live with a fear of the Cuban government and its surveillance of all their activities including any travel. Many would dearly love to emigrate to the USA and Canada where there are large numbers of Cuban emigrés.
The Cuban government knows this. They also are seriously constricted in terms of seeking better qualifications. They serve in South Africa, effectively as the prisoners of the Communist regime in that country. The South African Medical Association (SAMA), as do the Medical Associations of other countries, view the Cuban medical training as deficient. One expects Dr Zweli Mkhize, as a South African trained medical doctor, to have reservations about the Cuban doctors, but then he was very close to the late Harry Gwala who saw the SACP as the new Jerusalem.
One hopes that while these Cuban helpers are in quarantine in their South African hotel, they will have free and secure (from Cuban government spying) access to WiFi and that they will surf and "Google" to their heart's content. They're definitely not allowed to do that in Cuba. Maybe they can even take a crash course in English. The ANC probably, at the request of the Cubans, won’t allow them access to computers. It’s not all nice.
