Ramaphosa Says PPE Shipment to Cuba Was From Local Donors, Not Government

President Cyril Ramaphosa.

• President Cyril Ramaphosa has denied that the government has donated personal protective equipment to the government of Cuba.
• He said that locals donated a shipment of PPE.
• Cuba has been helping SAfrica in its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, sending a medical brigade to help in areas where it is needed.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the government has not made any donations of personal protective equipment (PPE) to the government of Cuba.

The president was responding to a written parliamentary question from DA MP Geordin Hill-Lewis about the apparent donation.

Hill-Lewis wanted details on the background of the donation.

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But Ramaphosa said the government had signed a government-to-government agreement with the Republic of Cuba.

In the health area, the collaboration focuses on the provision of qualified Cuban doctors to work in rural or disadvantaged areas of South Africa and the medical training of young South Africans in Cuba. In addition, a Cuban Health Brigade of 187 doctors arrived. South Africa in April 2020 to support the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, “Ramaphosa said.

In August last year, the government revealed that it would pay more than R29 million in salaries to the 187 members of the Cuban medical brigade.

At the time, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that Cubans were specialists in areas where South Africa was in short supply.

Some of these costs included R172 767 798 in salaries for 116 family physicians and R25 941 166 for 32 health technologists.

The information as of August 22 indicated that the Cuban brigade treated 31,624 patients.

Doctors also performed 3,095 procedures on Covid-19 patients, primarily in four provinces: Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, and Western Cape.

In addition to sharing medical resources and experience, several students were studying in Cuba under a bilateral agreement between Cuba and the South African armed forces, Ramaphosa said.

This program started in 2014 and is ongoing.

READ MORE | $ 200 million Cuban medical brigade ‘worth every penny’ in fight against Covid-19, says Mkhize

Ramaphosa said that in June 2020, some of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) students completed their studies.

“Due to travel restrictions in many parts of the world and because there were no commercial flights to or from Cuba, SANDF hired a South African Airways plane to pick up the students. The plane was also carrying a shipment of goods, such as personal protection equipment (PPE), sanitary napkins and toiletries, to SANDF students who had not completed their studies and were staying in Cuba, and to South African medical students by the Department of Health, ”he said.

Ramaphosa added that SANDF also transported PPE that locals donated to the government of Cuba.

“SANDF received a request to transport a shipment of PPE that had been donated by individuals in South Africa to the government of Cuba. Since there was space on the plane, SANDF agreed to take this shipment. The government of South Africa did not make any equipment donations. of personal protection to the government of Cuba. Neither the SANDF nor the Department of Health have details related to the participation of a senior official from a particular political party, “he said.

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