The South African government was expecting the work of a task team considering the cost and viability of providing antiretroviral treatment to persons suffering from HIV/Aids to be completed by the end of the month.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in reply to a question from New National Party MP Sarel Gous that: “The work of the health and National Treasury task team is due for completion at the end of April 2003.”
Tshabalala-Msimang did not elaborate further in the written reply to the question.
In reply to another question in Parliament from Democratic Alliance MP Sandy Kalyan about the requirement by Cuban doctors who have their families with them in South African having to send their children back to Cuba when they reached 15, the minister said: “In terms of the domestic contract that the Cuban doctors enter into with the Cuban Government, they have to send their children back when they turn 15.”
However, she pointed out that this was a contract entered into by the Cuban doctors and their country of origin “which is a domestic arrangement between the Cuban Government and its employees.”
“This requirement is not repeated in the government-to-government agreement
and is therefore clearly an internal arrangement which the South African Government has no jurisdiction over.” – I-Net-Bridge