Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times, South Africa - November 1, 1998
Mzilikazi Wa Afrika
Two of them said they were sent into isolation and made to beg for food after allegedly testing positive for HIV.
The six students, who have complained that they were forced to sleep like prisoners and eat like pigs, accused the Minister of Health, Dr Nkosazana Zuma, of having sent them to the "concentration camp of hell".
They said the discrimination they faced in Cuba took them back to the days of apartheid.
The students said on Friday that the Department of Health had warned them two months ago not to talk to the media, but they had decided to speak out after Zuma had "failed to solve their problems".
They accused her of lying to them about their contracts, and of publicly intimidating them when she visited Cuba in June.
They claimed to have signed 18-month contracts with the SA government, which their parents witnessed, on the day they left. But when they arrived in Cuba in January, they were told they were there for three years.
When Zuma visited Cuba they were told they could return home for a visit after a year and would be allowed to attend the funerals of close relatives in South Africa. But Joseph Nkosi, 22, who had been in Cuba since 1996, was not allowed to attend his father's funeral last year.
Sunnyboy Jele, 25, of KaNyamazane, said: "Four or more students were forced to share one small room. We used to sleep like prisoners of war in a concentration camp of hell. We used to eat very bad food, like we were pigs," he said.
Jele said Zuma had tried to intimidate them when she came to Cuba, telling them she had been treated worse while in exile.
"When we asked questions, the minister called us troublemakers and boasted of all the bad things that happened to her while in exile. She forgot that we went to Cuba to study, not for military training," he said.
One of the students who allegedly tested HIV positive, who declined to be named, said she and another student had been dragged out of their hostel rooms and sent to Havana.
"They came to our rooms at about 2am and ordered us to pack our bags. In Havana we were starved for more than five days. We survived only by begging for food from Cubans who had not yet been informed about our health," she said.
She claimed they had not been shown doctors' reports confirming that they had tested positive.
"They sent us back to South Africa and ordered us to lie about our health. The officials said we must tell Minister Zuma and our provincial health and welfare MEC that we had failed Spanish."
Colbin Colley Nkuna, 25, of Kabokweni, said rumours had spread in Sancti-Spitus province that all SA students were HIV positive.
Nkuna said it was practice in Cuba to shake hands when greeting a man and to kiss a woman on the cheek.
"People refused to shake our hands or receive our kisses when we greeted them. In fact, they were afraid even to speak to us, and shied away from us as if we were monsters," he said.
Octavia Mahlalela, 24, of Barberton, said they had been fed rotten bread and horse meat.
"Some students were also forced to eat pork, while our white counterparts from Paraguay were treated like kings . . . It was like during the apartheid days in South Africa - we were discriminated against," she said.
Zuma's spokesman, Khangelani Hlongwane, praised the students for returning home after "they failed to cope with the Cuban climatic condition and environment".
"The students were honest. They didn't want to waste taxpayers' money and decided to return home."
Hlongwane said two of those had come home because of health problems. "I cannot say it is asthma or flu - it's up to that person and his doctor," Hlongwane said.
He refused to comment on the allegations about the minister.
Dr Jim Davis, the SA representative for the Cuban minister of health, said the students had made up lies about Cuba because they had failed their studies.
"There is no difference between blacks and whites in Cuba. The students have a problem only with discipline," he said.
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