Speaker, the ANC commends the Limpopo ANC provincial government's approval of R24 million that will allow 100 students from Limpopo to study medicine in Cuba. This initiative is part of a programme aimed at addressing the shortage of doctors in this province.
Furthermore, the ANC provincial government in Limpopo has been sending students to Cuba since 1999. More than 190 have already studied medicine in Cuba, and some have already returned to serve the community of Limpopo as qualified doctors. It is indeed a good story. The ANC believes that the programme will go a long way toward improving access to health care as well as reducing inequality in the health care system, while boosting human resources and ensuring improved health outcomes for all people in Limpopo. This is a good story to tell, the outcome of which is geared to improving the quality of care for all South Africans, unlike in the Western Cape where those who wish to study medicine in Cuba have been denied an opportunity to do so by the DA government, which does not see the need to equip the youth of the Western Cape to be of service to their communities.
We thus call on the Minister of Health to intervene in this case and to extend this opportunity to the disadvantaged youth of the Western Cape. Together we will move South Africa forward. [Applause.]