MKMVA defends Minister Lindiwe Sisulu for encouraging cooperation with Cuba, and deploying Cuban water engineers
28 April 2021
The Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) is dismayed at the shallow, counter revolutionary, attacks that have been launched against the Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, comrade Lindiwe Sisulu, for having brought in Cuban water engineers to assist our country with the persistent and serious water problems that we are experiencing, especially in rural areas.
It must be understood that the Cuban water engineers are not in South Africa to take away jobs from South African engineers, but to impart their invaluable experience and technical skills to our South African water engineers.
The Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation is on record to have lamented several times over the years that it is a battle to get our local water engineers to work in rural areas because they have families, and mostly opt to reside and work in urban areas. Thus, MKMVA is very grateful for the preparedness of the group of 24 Cuban water engineers to assist with our persistent water supply challenges, especially in rural areas. These Cuban comrades know that they are coming into a hardship situation.
At the media briefing by the Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation where the Cuban water engineers were welcomed, Minister Sisulu said: “Where we suffer most are in the rural areas and the Cuban engineers who come here know that they are coming into a hardship situation, they are coming to help us in the rural areas, where there has not been water, where nobody has come forward to say we can help you here”.