|
February 16, 2003, 16:30. South Africa.
SABCnews.com.
Seven Cuban doctors were this week served with letters by the Limpopo Health
Department ordering them to leave the provincial hospital's premises within 48
hours. The letters stated that the doctors had broken the agreement they had
signed before leaving Cuba for South Africa.
However, the doctors tell tales of a contract, which they believe violates
their basic human rights, subjects them to virtual slave treatment and even
denies them the right to fall in love.
Norge Escobar is one of the first Cuban doctors who came to South Africa in
1996. Escobar believes the Cuban government did not approve of their lifestyles
and put pressure on the health department. One doctor converted to Islam,
another quit the communist party, a third refused to send his teenage daughter
to school in Cuba and others married South African women.
"I'm a stateless somebody having a responsibility of a family. The way
I was treated it means I must go to the streets and I don't have a relative here
except my child. My child is not big enough to look after me," Escobar
says.
Sello Moloto, the Limpopo health MEC, says his department could not ignore
its contract with Cuba, which reportedly threatened to withdraw the remaining 49
doctors from the province. "The seven who are involved opted out of that
contract. They acquired South African citizenship and they no longer want o be
part of it. If they opt out automatically their registration with the medical
council lapses," he says.
"Human rights violated"
Elmarie Pieterse is married to Ricardo Gutieerze, one of the doctors. She
argues that his basic human rights have been violated. Apart from sending 53% of
their monthly salaries back home, when their children turn 15 they must be sent
back, too. "That is atrocious. That is the time when a child needs their
parents," she says. Some doctors have resorted to falsifying their
children's ages.
There are 450 Cuban doctors in South Africa. However, more than 26 of them
and their families recently fled and sought political asylum in countries like
Spain. They say the South African-Cuban contract is unbearable, something South
African officials seem less concerned about.
"We are only taking care of our own interests," says Moloto.
Adding to the problem is the fact that the seven doctors are now effectively
stateless. They have received letters informing them that they may not return to
Cuba because they are regarded as "defectors". Their only chance is to
acquire South African citizenship. The doctors won an urgent application in the
Labour Court on Wednesday restraining the health department from keeping them
out of work. They will be back in court on the February 24 to hear if they can
stay. | 
