Gauteng health paid R3.9 million to absent Cuban doctors
26 September 2024
Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko has disclosed in a written reply to my questions that R3.9 million was paid to 7 Cuban doctors who had left South Africa to go back to Cuba.
This expensive bungle happened as 28 Cuban doctors were hired on a one-year contract to assist with the Covid-19 pandemic, but the contracts for seven of them were irregularly extended for another year.
Instead of their contracts terminating on 14 May 2021, they continued to receive salaries without working until May 2022.
According to the MEC: "The officials who extended the contracts allege to have not been aware that the Cuban Healthcare Workers were no longer in the country."