Pompeo attacks SA for taking Cuban doctors

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticised South Africa’s government for accepting over 200 Cuban medics to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak.

Mr Pompeo accused Cuba of profiting from the pandemic.

“We’ve noticed how the regime in Havana has taken advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to continue its exploitation of Cuban medical workers,” he said.

“We applaud leaders in Brazil and in Ecuador and Bolivia and other countries which have refused to turn a blind eye to these abuses by the Cuban regime and ask all countries to do the same, including places like South Africa and Qatar,” he added. 

The health workers arrived in South Africa on Sunday night. They include family doctors, epidemiologists, biotechnology experts and health-care technology engineers. 

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel respond to Mr Pompeo’s jibe on Twitter, writing “The United States lie deliberately when they attack Cuba’s international medical cooperation with lies and slanders”. 

The deployment of Cuban medics to South Africa has prompted mixed responses, with the South African Medical Association (Sama) saying priority should have been given to unemployed local medics.

South Africa has so far recorded 5,350 cases of coronavirus, including 103 deaths.

Photo: GCIS