Unhygienic: Air force students in Cuba have shared screenshots of the starch-heavy and unpalatable food they are served and the cockroaches that infest their food and living space
South African Air Force student pilots being trained in Cuba are allegedly being treated as “slaves”, with a compulsory period of lawn-mowing using machetes every morning after physical training.
Parents who spoke to the Mail & Guardian are up in arms, saying conditions the students are subjected to are nothing short of being locked up in a prison camp. Even their uniforms are similar to those worn by prison chain gangs during apartheid.
“They had to sign contracts with few conditions in South Africa prior to leaving for Cuba. None of them were vaccinated [for Covid-19] until a week ago. They have no idea which vaccine was used because they just had to stand in line and receive the injections,” one father said.
“The students don’t even have any recourse to air complaints, with most of them really wanting to leave. They have one translator for the group and he has no authority. A representative from the South African embassy has been to talk to them. He told them he has no authority in military matters and promised to see that the women in the group at least receive sanitary pads, which they also did not have earlier.”
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) group, who started their training in August, consists of 250 students training at a Spanish-language military base in Santiago. Ten are earmarked to train as fighter pilots, but only after completing the first year.
The complaints come in the wake of a video that went viral in South Africa in which Cuban police were seen beating up medical students with batons and slapping them during a confrontation about loud music the learners were listening to. The department of international relations and cooperation said in a statement it would investigate the matter. The students involved are part of the Nelson Mandela/Fidel Castro Medical Collaboration Programme between South Africa and Cuba, which started in 1997.
The conditions of the air force students’ training in Cuba came up last week when members of parliament’s joint standing committee on defence were briefed by Vice Admiral Asiel Kubu, the chief of human resources in the department of defence.
Kobus Marais, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) spokesperson on defence, said he showed video clips of the Cuban conditions to Kubu, who reportedly replied: “This is bad. We will have to investigate this one.”
The Defence Force is paying millions of rand for students training to be pilots as well as those studying medicine, air traffic control, engineering and mechanics as part of Project Thusano, an exchange programme through which Cuban mechanics are paid to repair military vehicles in South Africa.
The cost relative to the success of the programme has come under fire before — especially after 35 medical students were accused of mutiny and being absent without leave in 2019. The South African National Defence Union (Sandu) took up their case after SANDF dismissed the students who had protested against their conditions and the standard of training they were receiving. They claimed they did not study at a medical school but rather at an infantry base not recognised as such.
In the latest controversy involving the air force students, another father said the group was up at 6am every day for an hour of physical training before having breakfast consisting of a bread roll, a boiled egg and a piece of polony. Thereafter they have to cut lawns before four periods of 1.5 hours each learning Spanish.
“The teacher cannot speak a word of English, so the students are using Google translate and phone applications to figure out what the teacher means,” another parent said.
“Since they arrived at the camp in August, they have not been allowed to go to a shop to buy toiletries or anything else just to make their conditions more bearable. They managed to buy SIM cards at exorbitant prices just to connect to their families in South Africa.”
“The conditions in the kitchens are just filthy with cockroaches all over — even in the food. I think prisoners in South Africa live in better conditions. A meal — every meal — consists of a plate of rice with a small piece of meat or two Vienna sausages and some vegetables at night.
“They are expected to be neat but have to stand inspection at 10:30pm daily for the last time in their one two-piece uniform. By 6am they are wearing the same uniform again — for physical training and for class in temperatures of 46 degrees. When are they expected to wash and clean their clothes?”
Sandu national secretary advocate Pikkie Greeff said he had received complaints from parents with children undergoing training in Cuba.
“It is clear that the conditions are unacceptably unhygienic and the food insufficient for recruits. Lawn cutting also does not constitute training. It is certainly not up to Defence Force standards. The uniforms are apparently standard Cuban Defence Force issued items. These students are South African soldiers and not Cuban ones,” he said.
Defence Force spokesperson Brigadier General Mongezi Kweta said six students had received their pilot training in Cuba between 2014 and 2020, besides the current group. Only three are qualified pilots in the Air Force and are used for research and development purposes for future pilot training.
“Eighteen students have successfully completed training as air traffic controllers in Cuba. They are transferred to various bases after undergoing integration training again in South Africa and being utilised as controllers thereafter. There are a few gaps due to [Cuba’s] foreign doctrine and curriculum that is covered by the reintegration programme when they are back,” Kweta said.
During the committee briefing, the DA’s Marais confronted Kubu, arguing that budgets for the Air Force’s own flying schools and other training units were being cut to pay for training in Cuba. As it is, the schools have a backlog of some 80 pilot students waiting to start training, partly because of the cuts.
“We need every penny in South Africa rather than spending it overseas,” Marais said.
The Air Force also has students in Russia for flying training, while in South Africa there is not even sufficient money available to fully service and buy spares for the fighter jets.
Kubu said he had taken note of all comments and “will work on that”.
[/membership]