SA medical students turn messianic in Havana

Noseweek Issue #197, 1st March 2016   By Elisabeth Hamilton


SA medical students turn messianic in Havana

Hugely expensive training of young would-be doctors in Cuba is crumbling.

A diplomatic row is boiling over between South Africa and the communist state of Cuba where South African medical students are taking to the streets of Havana and proclaiming the Gospel.

It may all seem a bit archaic, but in Cuba, where permission was given in 2014 to build the first new church since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, it is a touchy subject.

And the same students who are spreading the word are apparently illegally exporting Cuban cigars to make some cash on the side while earning themselves a reputation for heavy drinking and brawling.

Signs that something was amiss first emerged in September last year when the SABC reported that the Cuban Embassy in South Africa had expressed “concern to the government in Pretoria” that South Africans studying medicine in Havana had “resorted to faith to cure ailments”.

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Submitted by : Brett Van Bergen of pretoria on 2016-03-07 17:41:13
I can just imagine what this folly must have cost taxpayers to date.
It would have been far more advantageous to spend that money on facilities and training here. They would have been trained in English, and we would retain the infrastructure.

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