Medical students taken to task over church activities
Health MEC, Sibongiseni Dhlomo, discussed his visit to Cuba earlier this month to address reports of challenges faced by South African medical students in Cuba.
KZN’s Health MEC recently visited Cuba following concerns relating to the conduct of some South African medical students studying in Havana.
What is most troubling, according to MEC, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, is the long hours the students are spending on church activities. Dhlomo said students were reportedly to be spending seven hours a day for a week dedicated to religious activities. This he said, could compromise their preparation time for exams. Another area of concern, he said, was a report that a pastor from KZN had visited Cuba and met with the students without the knowledge of the South African Embassy in Cuba.
Dhlomo was advised by the KZN Premier, Cabinet and the Provincial Health Portfolio Committee, together with at least 40 religious leaders, and instructed to address the matter with the students.
Dhlomo and his team met with university authorities, including vice-rectors and rectors of the seven universities, before meeting with all the South African students. “The discussions were frank and quite engaging. It was communicated to students that the Cuban officials were concerned that there wasn’t 100 per cent class attendance, that some students had not shown up for exams in June 2015, issues of punctuality and concern about the high number of supplementary exams as well as a steadily-rising number of students who were failing and facing exclusion. Students were also informed of concerns that pertained to some of them who indulge in alcohol excessively,” he explained.
Dhlomo said the discussions revealed that most students were very involved in church activities. He said students had always enjoyed this freedom of association and it was part of their coping strategy living in a foreign country.
However, he said concerns were centred around a particular church whose student leader said it had about 150 members. “This is the group that is associated with the invitation of a pastor from Pietermaritzburg to visit our students in Cuba. Student church leaders indicated they did not see anything wrong with using their stipend to buy a ticket and organise hotel accommodation for the pastor to visit them in Cuba,” he said, adding that the student church leaders had since indicated they had reduced the hours they spend on church activities.
Dhlomo said some students had expressed pleasure that the matter was addressed and all agreed to prioritise medical training instead of pastoral training.
