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21/10/2002 08:08 - (SA).
News24.com
Pietermaritzburg - Ten more Cuban doctors and their families have allegedly
sought political asylum in Spain, raising the number of doctors to flee South
African working conditions in the last month to 26.
Most of the doctors who fled the country worked in Gauteng and the Eastern
Cape, and reportedly said they would rather work as construction workers in
Spain than practise as doctors under their existing contract with South Africa.
Three families are believed to have got off the plane in Spain on their way
back from Cuba, where they had to spend their annual compulsory holiday leave.
Seven other families, who left South Africa on October 7 on holiday, followed
suit.
According to sources, the exodus of doctors has resulted in the remaining
doctors being closely watched by their provincial Cuban co-ordinators, who
report their movements to national co-ordinator Jimmy Davies.
A news article in a Sunday paper about the absconding of the first 16
doctors was followed by an instruction from Davies to Cuban doctors to write
letters to the paper about the "success" of the programme to correct "inaccuracies".
Forced to divorce
Cubans who have married South Africans and applied for South African
citizenship and permanent residence said they have to go through trial and
tribulation. The wife of a doctor said she was told by officials at the Home
Affairs Department that the department "should not recommend"
permanent residence for Cuban doctors.
"It's a real mission to get the application through. In one case a
doctor was 'forced' to divorce his newly-wedded South African wife and
instructed to return to Cuba," she said.
In a Spanish e-mail (of which the Witness has a copy) translated into
English by a language expert, a group of doctors based in Limpopo were informed
by their co-ordinator that Ricardo Gutierrez applied for permanent residence and
should be treated as a defector.
"He may not return to Cuba." Limpopo co-ordinator BI Monzon
allegedly denies sending the e-mail, but in a recording of a conversation
allegedly repeated the message.
According to the instruction, Gutierrez, who is married to an Afrikaans
doctor and has a child with her, may not visit Cuba to see his mother, brothers
and daughter from a previous marriage.
'Big Brother'
Adding to the misery of those who apply for permanent residence, is they way
in which they are treated by their colleagues, who are apparently warned not to
associate with them. "People who have been our closest friends for the past
five years suddenly don't want to be seen with us," one doctor said.
The "defectors" say their colleagues are scared of "Big
Brother", as they call Davies, who has the authority to send them back to
Cuba. "They cannot apply for asylum in South Africa, and when they arrive
in Cuba they have to hand over their passports to the government.
"Naughty boys", who criticised the government in South Africa or
did not pay the agreed 30% of their salaries into the Cuban Health Department's
account, are "punished" by retaining their passports, a source
alleged.
"We are not into politics. We just want to have the right to live with
our husbands where we want to, and to associate with people we want to associate
with. The current situation seems to benefit both governments but punishes the
people on the ground.
Increased to 450
"It enables the South African Health Department to pay pathetic
salaries to Cuban doctors instead of hiring more expensive people, while the
Cuban government gets revenue from the doctors."
KwaZulu-Natal co-ordinator Juan de Pestre said the allegations are false. "Nobody
was forced to join the programme and the contract was very clear from the
beginning. I, like many of the other 88 doctors in the province, came here to
help the South African population. Like other doctors we work very long hours in
harsh conditions in rural areas, but we are proud to assist the patients."
Davies was unavailable for comment. He previously said the increase from 95
doctors to 450 is proof of the success of the programme. | 
