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Christi Naude. News24.com.
19/02/2003 09:37 - (SA)
Pietermaritzburg - A Cuban doctor alleges he was evicted, thrown into prison
and unfairly dismissed last year by the Eastern Cape Health Department because
he converted to Islam.
Paediatrician Dr Juan Elutil Yings came to South Africa five years ago under
the government-to-government agreement between Cuba and South Africa.
Yings, who worked at the Tayler Bequest Hospital in Mount Frere until his
dismissal, said his trouble started when he converted to Islam two years ago.
"I was visited by the Cuban co-ordinator, who saw a picture of Mecca,
the holy place for Muslims, and Arabic scripture in my house. He commented
negatively on my new religious status."
Soon after this visit he received a letter, dated May 22, from the Eastern
Cape Health Department, which gave him nine days to assume duties at the remote
Tafalofefe Hospital, 50km from Butterworth.
Yings allegedly objected to the decision to redeploy him to a place that can
only be reached with a 4x4 in bad weather.
A gynaecologist's letter stated that his five months' pregnant wife was "hypertensive
with a heart disease".
"There are no facilities at Tafalofefe," Yings told the Witness.
A letter from the Mount Fletcher District Office vouching for the doctor's
good conduct and expressing the community's anger at losing Yings, was
apparently ignored. He was told to move or be deported.
In August, home affairs officials arrested him "in front of my
two-year-old daughter and my wife", and put him in Umtata prison. His work
permit, which was still valid at the time - a copy is in the possession of the
Witness - was allegedly cancelled and he was charged with contravening the
Aliens Control Act.
After one night in a cell which he had to share with rape and murder
suspects, a Mount Frere businessman paid a R7 000 repatriation fee to get him
out of prison. With the help of an MP, his permit was extended for a further
three months.
During his period in prison, his wife and daughter were evicted from their
home on the hospital premises.
Numerous requests to Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the
Eastern Cape Cuban representative have proved futile.
In a letter to an Inkatha Freedom Party MP, Tshabalala-Msimang said she
could not approve Yings's reinstatement as "this could compromise the
relations between the South African and Cuban governments and the working
relations with other Cuban doctors, which in the long run will have a negative
impact on health service delivery in rural hospitals".
Eastern Cape Cuban representative deputy director Nomvula Kwadjo said she
would only comment in court, while national Cuban co-ordinator Dr Jaime Davis
referred media enquiries to the national health department.
Yings's attorney Ishana Hassim said the matter will be referred to the
bargaining council, requesting that he be reinstated on the basis of
discrimination and the unilateral alteration of his conditions of service.
Meanwhile, support for the doctor, who on busy days attended to between 200
and 300 patients, has poured in from the community. Written statements by
colleagues describe him as "a very good doctor, who is serious about his
work and has upgraded the malnutrition unit".
A letter from staff members of the Madrassa Orphanage says: "We miss
him and want him back." | 
