OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nelspruit | Sunday 6.00pm.
TWO Cuban doctors stationed in Mpumalanga have sold off State property, including cellular telephones, household items and medical equipment, before fleeing the country with their pre-school daughter.
The husband and wife team were stationed at the small Lydenburg hospital in northern Mpumalanga and are believed to have fled to South America.
Police are investigating a series of theft charges against Julien Dominguez and his wife, despite a promise by the Cuban government on Sunday to compensate Mpumalanga’s cash-strapped health department for any material losses.
Mpumalanga’s health director, Gulam Karim, said the couple initially told colleagues that they were going on a two-week holiday. They failed to return to work, however, and colleagues who tried to contact them on their government issue cellular phones were surprised to find strangers answering both phones.
The strangers claimed that Dominguez had sold them the telephones at “bargain prices”. When concerned colleagues checked on the couple’s government-rented house, they found that the place had been stripped of all valuable possessions, including televisions, all bed and other linen, kitchen equipment and electronics, smaller furnishings and all personal items.
The couple’s medical equipment was also missing.
Karim confirmed that a complaint had been lodged with the Cuban Embassy. Police spokesman Theo du Bruyn confirmed that a charge of theft has been lodged against the couple. He said police believed that the items were sold to finance the couple’s trip out of the country, and they were thought to be in South America.
Cuban health department representative in South Africa, Jaime Davies, said on Friday his government would pay in full for any damages or losses suffered by Mpumalanga. Davies said that the Cuban government was trying to verify where the couple had absconded to but said no further investigation will be launched.