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Castro’s resignation lessens pressure on Cuban doctors exported to Africa
March 3, 2008 | | 3 Comments
By Penny (3)
The resignation of Fidel Castro last month was greeted with joy by at least one Cuban doctor had been exported to the African continent to help alleviate the brain drain of African doctors to the West.
Cuba has a long association with the continent, especially South Africa ever since its troops in Angola during 1987-8 crucially defeated the apartheid South African forces. This eventually paved the way for Nelson Mandela to become President and he described the Angolan victory as a “milestone in the history of the struggle for southern African liberation.”
Currently there are about 2,000 Cuban doctors working in South Africa and other countries such as Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Angola Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Mali. In South Africa, the bilateral agreement meant that fully trained Cuban doctors were sent to South Africa to work in under resourced rural areas while South African medical students studied in Cuba. Initially the bilateral agreement seemed to work.
Dr Barbaro Monzon-Torres, a 43 year-old surgeon and father of two considered himself lucky as one of more than 1,000 doctors lent by Castro to South Africa in 1996, even though he worked in the Limpopo province, South Africa’s poorest region. Lucky because he could earn 30 times more than in Cuba with a monthly salary of around USD660 paid directly to him by the South African government. However, in reality, Dr Monzon-Torres only received a small amount because the Cuban government took 30% and ordered most of his remaining salary to be kept in a Cuban bank account. But at least he was better off than his compatriots in other countries which paid the Cuban government and gave doctors only a small stipend.
In 2002, Dr Monzon-Torres found himself in the headlines when together with his anaesthetist wife and five others, they renounced their Cuban arrangement and signed local South African contracts. In South Africa they were dubbed the Limpopo Seven and in Cuba they were labelled dissidents and are banned from their homeland.
Cuba brought pressure on the South African government to block the new contracts and as a result the South African government effectively dismissed them. However, two years later a labor court ordered their reinstatement. The Limpopo Seven’s actions went on to highlight a number of issues for Cuban doctors working in South Africa. These issues included discrimination by the South African Department of Health and the doctors were supported in their battles by the South African Medical Association.
With the deteriorating bilateral agreement the South African government is now turning to Tunisia to alleviate its shortage of doctors. Altogether at least 100 Tunisian doctors are expected to work in rural areas. So far, as of last month 20 have arrived.
In the meantime, Dr Monzon-Torres who now works at Johannesburg’s South Rand Hospital is hoping that once again sometime soon he can travel to his beloved Cuban homeland.
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interesting story! do you know whether the tunisian (and iranian) doctors have similar ‘contracts’ with their own governments?
It’s my understanding that the Tunisian and Iranian doctors are being paid direct by the South African government. The first Iranian doctors went to South Africa in 2004.
I guess discrimination is just part of the deal for foreign doctors to work in the still developing Africa. The story reminds me of the western medical staff who were sentenced to death last year for allegedly spreading AIDS among Libyans. Dr Monzon-Torres might actually count himself lucky for not having to face a similar fate.