Pretoria, May 26 (Prensa Latina) The South African Ministry of Health this week congratulated the Cuban people on the 60th anniversary of their internationalist medical support.
A related statement highlighted the value of Cuban cooperation in saving lives through medical brigades around the world.
South Africa, the ministry recalls, is one of more than 100 countries that have benefited from Cuba’s “social solidarity, excellent internationalism and medical cooperation,” through specialists who “contributed immensely” to the national health system and its response to strengthen the Covid-19 pandemic.
The country has benefited since 1997 from this important support from doctors and health specialists who have been working here during this time, the statement said. Likewise, the ministry highlights the Nelson Mandela-Fidel Castro medical training program that has trained more than three thousand South African doctors at various Cuban universities, mostly working in sectors of disadvantaged communities.
The statement quoted Deputy Health Minister Sibongiseni Dhlomo as calling South Africa one of the fortunate countries to have received this Cuban global healthcare collaboration that complemented national medical schools to address shortages of doctors, particularly in the past underserved areas.
South Africa would not have benefited from this fruitful collaboration were it not for the efforts of both countries’ world-renowned revolutionary freedom fighters, Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro, Dhlomo noted.
Both heads of state and government, the deputy minister concluded, are convinced that health is the greatest wealth one can have.