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April 2, 2001



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Cuban scientists, professionals to help SA

PRETORIA March 30 2001 Sapa.

A number of Cuban scientists and professionals will come to South Africa on unknown dates to assist with development, the African National Congress said on Friday.

Among the visitors would be mathematics and science teachers, and veterinary scientists, President Thabo Mbeki wrote in the ruling party's online journal - ANC Today.

He made the announcement following his state visit to Havana this week. Mbeki returned to Pretoria on Thursday.

"On many occasions, the citizens of this island state ... openly expressed their willingness to come to South Africa to work with us to realise our goals," Mbeki wrote.

"Even children spoke of their intention to become teachers and doctors so that they could carry out their international duties."

He said Cuba had also offered to waive its intellectual property rights on drugs and medicines it had developed to help South Africa provide cheaper medicine to its citizens.

Cuba would co-operate with South Africa in their production.

There are 463 Cuban doctors working in public hospitals in South Africa, many in rural areas. Forty-seven of them are lecturers. They will assist in medical schools and teaching at hospitals. Cuba granted 185 South African youths scholarships to study medicine in that country.

The two countries would also co-operate in the field of biotechnology to increase the capacity of South Africa to conduct research in this area, Mbeki said.

Cuba agreed to assist South Africa in the field of animal and plant health and productivity so that the country could address the question of malnutrition.

"She (Cuba) is ready to send some teams of veterinary scientists to help us further improve the health of our animal stock, including in the former homeland areas," said Mbeki.

"This is ... timely in the light of the recent outbreak of various animal diseases globally, including madcow, foot-and-mouth and anthrax."

During the visit, a South African delegation agreed with their Cuban counterparts on measures to improve the level of education in South Africa.

"We will be receiving Cuban teachers in mathematics and science to help us in our schools," said Mbeki.

"These will be followed by teacher trainers in these subjects, once again to build up our own domestic capacity to improve the performance of our student youth in these critical areas.

"We will also work together to draw on Cuba's experience with regard to the use of radio and television in the field of education, including the area of basic literacy."

Mbeki praised Cubans for their contribution in the fight against apartheid and their continuous willingness to assist the country improve the quality of living of its citizens.

"As we left Cuba, we had come to understand that the Cuban people are driven by a genuine and passionate humanism. They do not hesitate to share what they have with those who are in want.

"They wish to be part of a world of freedom, peace, prosperity and friendship among the peoples, and are determined to make their contribution to the achievement of these goals."

President Thabo Mbeki praises Cuba's selfless contribution to African development

30 march 2001. Issued by: African National Congress

A genuine and passionate humanism lay behind Cuba's ongoing contribution to development in Africa, ANC President Thabo Mbeki said following his state visit to Cuba this week.

Writing in the ANC's online journal ANC Today, President Mbeki recalled the sacrifices the people of Cuba made in the liberation of Southern Africa and describes the many areas in which they continue to assist South Africa and the continent.

Mbeki said the friendship and solidarity which motivated Cuba's selfless contribution to liberation struggles in Southern Africa helped to explain the great willingness of the Cuban people to help in the struggle to eradicate the apartheid legacy and achieve the objective of a better life for all.

"On many occasions, the citizens of this island state, including scientists and other professionals, such as teachers, openly expressed their willingness to come to South Africa to work with us to realise our goals. Even children spoke of their intention to become teachers and doctors so that they could carry out their international duties," Mbeki said.

South Africa has 463 Cuban doctors working in its public hospitals, especially those in rural areas. Forty-seven of these are lecturers and are therefore able to assist both in medical schools and teaching hospitals. Cuba has granted scholarships to 185 of our young people who are currently studying in Cuba to become medical doctors.

Cuba has offered to waive its intellectual property rights over drugs and medicines it has developed and cooperate with South Africa in their production. This is so South Africa can provide affordable medicines to poor people. In addition to this, Cuba has agreed to work with us in the important scientific area of biotechnology to increase our research capacity in this area.

"She has also agreed to share with us the important work she has done in the area of animal and plant health and productivity, so that we are better able to address the question of better nutrition and therefore better health for our people. Immediately, she is ready to send some tens of veterinary scientists to help us further improve the health of our animal stock, including in the former homeland areas. This is especially timely in the light of the recent outbreak of various animal diseases globally, including mad-cow, foot-and-mouth and anthrax diseases," Mbeki said.

He said Cuba was in agreement with South Africa about the critical importance of human resource development:

"In part, this derives from her own reality and experience of development. Among other things, the country is not as well endowed with natural resources as we are, and, has had to depend greatly on the skill of her own people to achieve the outstanding results she has with regard to such areas as health and education. "

The Cuban leadership engaged the delegation in intense discussions about measures to raise the level of education of South Africa's people and improve the quality of that education.

"Accordingly, we will be receiving Cuban teachers in mathematics and science to help us in our schools. These will be followed by teacher trainers in these subjects, once again to build up our own domestic capacity to improve the performance of our student youth in these critical areas. We will also work together to draw on Cuba's experience with regard to the use of radio and television in the field of education, including the area of basic literacy," Mbeki said.

President Mbeki joined Fidel Castro and ANC Secretary General, Kgalema Motlanthe at the African Memorial Park in Miramar, Havana, where they unveiled a bust of the late ANC President Oliver Tambo. Tambo's bust was the second to be unveiled following that of the first President of Angola, Agostinho Neto. Other busts that will be placed at the park include those of Abdel Gamal Nasser of Egypt, Modibo Keita of Mali, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Patrice Lumumba of Congo, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Eduardo Mondlane and Samora Machel of Mozambique.

"It felt strange and embarrassing that, seven years after our own liberation, we, an African country, did not have a single memorial to pay tribute to these and other outstanding African patriots," Mbeki said.

"As we left Cuba, we had come to understand that the Cuban people are driven by a genuine and passionate humanism. They are proud of their rich and long history of struggle to attain their own freedom and social progress.

"They do not hesitate to share what they have with those who are in want. They wish to be part of a world of freedom, peace, prosperity and friendship among the peoples, and are determined to make their contribution to the achievement of these goals," Mbeki said.

The full text of President Mbeki's letter is available on the weekly online journal ANC Today at www.anc.org.za.

Issued by: African National Congress PO Box 61884, Marshalltown 2107 30 March 2001 More information contact: Donovan Cloete on (011) 376 8318 or 082 574 0659

Don't make only AID's drugs cheaper: Manto

PRETORIA March 30 2001 Sapa

Pharmaceutical companies were trying to corner the government into accepting the reduction in costs of only Aids drugs, Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday.

"We won't be moved," she told reporters in Pretoria after signing a co-operation

agreement with her Cuban counterpart, Dr Carlos Dotres-Martinez.

The agreement was in part aimed at improving the exchange of medical technology between the two countries, Tshabalala-Msimang said.

"We know that Cuba has made much progress in this field, especially in developing expertise in the area of pharmaceuticals. We will be exploring this area with an aim of finding a suitable path to accessing affordable medicines for South Africa," she said.

Last week, Cuban president Fidel Castro announced that his country had developed world-class Aids drugs and wanted to help South Africa and Brazil circumvent patent laws to produce cheaper, generic drugs for Aids sufferers in their countries.

"We will fully support Brazil and South Africa, encouraging them to ignore US patents and produce the drugs to save the millions of lives that can be saved," he said.

During President Thabo Mbeki's state visit to Cuba this week, he and Castro signed a number of agreements, including one which could clear the way for the two countries to co-operate in producing low-cost Aids drugs while ignoring drug company patents.

On April 18, the Pretoria High Court battle is to resume in which 39 pharmaceutical companies, both local and international, challenge South Africa's Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act, claiming it includes provisions allowing for their patent rights to be eroded.

The government, however, contends that the provisions aim to make drugs accessible and affordable for all South Africans, and are justified.

Health ministers from the Non-Aligned Movement who met in Johannesburg this week, agreed to support the South African government in its legal fight, and to recognise the right of poor countries to have access to cheaper Aids drugs.

Various pharmaceutical companies have made offers of cheaper Aids drugs for developing countries.

On Tuesday, United States-based Abbott Laboratories announced it would offer two types anti-retroviral drugs at cost in Africa.

But Tshabalala-Msimang said it was not enough to slash the prices of Aids drugs alone.

She said there had been a tendency to reduce the Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act to a single issue of anti-retroviral drugs. The Act was a crucial instrument for achieving the overall objectives of her government's national drug policy.

"Our goal is to ensure an adequate and reliable supply of safe, cost-effective drugs of acceptable quality to all South Africans and for all the diseases that continue to pose major health challenges to our country..."

Dotres-Martinez said Cuba was willing to use its own resources to help South Africa obtain all the drugs it needed at a low price and high quality.

The agreement signed by the two ministers would also combine and formalise two existing agreements between the two countries on the recruitment of doctors, the training of medical students and an exchange training programme for medical researchers and specialists, Tshabalala-Msimang said.

SA drs studying in Cuba should be exempt from entrance exams: Manto

PRETORIA March 30 2001 Sapa

South African medical students studying in Cuba would be subject to double discrimination if they had to write entrance examinations here, like other doctors who had qualified abroad, Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday.

Her department had taken up the matter with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, she said.

She and her Cuban counterpart, Dr Carlos Dotres-Martinez, addressed reporters in Pretoria at the signing of an agreement to combine and formalise two existing agreements between the two countries on the recruitment of doctors, the training of medical students and an exchange training programme for medical researchers and specialists.

It is also aimed at improving the exchange of medical technology between the two countries.

Tshabalala-Msimang said she and Dotres-Martinez had discussed difficulties encountered by South African medical students studying in Cuba.

All doctors with foreign qualifications have to pass examinations in South Africa before they could register.

However, it would be unfair to apply this requirement to the South Africans qualifying in Cuba.

These students came from disadvantaged backgrounds and did not have the resources to pay for their own studies locally.

That was why they were taken up in the programme to study in Cuba, Tshabalala-Msimang said.

She had studied in Leningrad, and like other exiles, had contended upon their return that they should not have to write the examinations because they did not study abroad by choice. They succeeded.

Similarly, the medical students currently studying in Cuba had been forced to do so by the legacy of apartheid.

About 200 South Africans are studying at Cuban medical schools and about 450 Cuban doctors have been recruited to work in the South African public health sector.

These doctors made a major contribution in South Africa's efforts to provide access to affordable, quality health care, particularly in rural areas, Tshabalala-Msimang said.

"There has been improvement in the quality of treatment in almost every hospital where we have deployed Cuban doctors..."

She said the patients received more than medical care from these doctors, who addressed the needs of the patient as a whole.

Dotres-Martinez said he had met about 200 of the doctors in hospitals in three provinces, and had been impressed with the "love and dedication" with which they were associated.

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