South Africa mistakenly paid about 225 thousand dollars to seven Cuban doctors who had already left the country.

The Health Department of the South African province of Gauteng mistakenly paid 3.9 million rand (approximately 225,000 dollars) to seven Cuban doctors who had already left South Africa.

These professionals continued to receive their salaries for a year due to an administrative error, a fact that has generated strong criticism regarding the entity's administrative management in the African country, local press reported.

The incident was revealed by Jack Bloom, a member of the opposition party DA, who explained that the confusion arose after the hiring of 28 Cuban doctors for a period of one year to help in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the contracts of seven of them were irregularly extended, resulting in them continuing to be paid despite their absence from the country, it detailed.

Bloom highlighted the seriousness of the matter, stating that it is surprising that such funds have been disbursed to doctors who were not present to perform their duties.

So far, the Department of Health has tried to recover the money, but there are still 2.7 million rand unresolved.

It is not specified whether the hiring of doctors was done through the Cuban government agency dedicated to the export of medical professionals, in which case the money would have ended up in the regime's coffers.

During Covid-19, Cuba sent thousands of doctors to various countries, many of them on the African continent.

In April, it was revealed that the Department of Health of the province of Gauteng spent an annual amount of $745,652 (equivalent to 14.3 million rand) on hiring 11 Cuban doctors, despite the considerable number of unemployed local physicians.

Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, Minister of Health and Welfare of this region, where the city of Johannesburg is located, made this information public during a consultation with opposition political groups in the provincial legislature and stated that the salary of Cuban doctors ranges from 1 to 1.6 million rands annually, 52,522 and 84,016 dollars, respectively.

He explained that out of the total number of professionals, four were located in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Health District, three in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Health District, two in the Sedibeng Metropolitan Health District, while one operates at the Thelle Mogoerane Hospital and another at the Tembisa Hospital.

The export of Cuban doctors to South Africa has its origins in a bilateral agreement signed in 1996 between both nations. This pact between Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro improved primary health care in South Africa, according to Naledi Pandor, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.

Under this agreement, the African nation sends hundreds of medical students to Cuban schools, whose tuition is paid by the South African state, and in return, the Caribbean nation sends doctors to work in the South African public health system.