By Wardah Meyer
Staff Reporter
The children of Cuba's Ernesto "Che" Guevara say health care and education should be free for everyone.
Speaking through a Spanish interpreter in Portlands, Mitchells Plain, on Sunday, Dr Aleida Guevara and her brother Camilo said public health could not be operated like a business, because a value couldn't be put on a person's life.
Following a visit to a hospital in Khayelitsha, Aleida, the eldest daughter of the Marxist revolutionary and a doctor by profession, said even though the resources at the hospital were not the best, the efforts by the staff should nevertheless be applauded.
| 'Good work is being done there' |
"Sometimes we do not have all the equipment and medicines, but for this reason we should respect the human effort even more," Guevara said.
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"Good work is being done there," she said, adding however that illness was far easier to prevent than to cure, so prevention education was vital.
Aleida also encouraged South Africans to take ownership of their schools and hospitals.
"In Cuba the government provides free health care for all its citizens. No private hospitals or clinics are permitted," she added.
The Guevaras shared information about their history, culture and traditions with fellow activists who participated in a discussion forum.
In reply to questions regarding divisions and racism in the Western Cape, Aleida said greater respect for one another was needed.
"Solidarity, respect and unity are needed if South Africans want to change their reality," she said.
"In unity there is much more force. This is ultimately what the Cuban revolution has achieved."
The siblings' visit to South Africa also aims to gain support for the campaign to free five Cubans imprisoned in the US for espionage and conspiracy to commit murder.
- This article was originally published on page 6 of Cape Argus on October 19, 2009
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