Cuba expels Eastern Cape medical student over ‘kidnapping’

An Eastern Cape medical student studying in Cuba has pleaded with authorities to allow him to finish his medical degree after being kicked out of his Cuban medical school just weeks before completing his studies.

Selby Mabokela, 31, of Hlobo in Ngqamakhwe, near Butterworth, was suspended for three years by the Villa Clara University of Medical Sciences (Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de Villa Clara) last month after he and a fellow student from KZN allegedly kidnapped two young Cuban women.

Mabokela says the women were part of a trio who had robbed them and they were simply trying to get them to return their possessions.

The women were not fellow university students.

Mabokela is one of a group of SA students studying medicine in Cuba as part of the Mandela-Castro medical collaboration programme.

He was three weeks short of finishing his degree when the disciplinary decision was taken.

Speaking to DispatchLIVE from his home in Hlobo, Mabokela said no criminal case of kidnapping had been opened against them.  

“One evening we went out of our campus residence to buy cigarettes. We went to a spot full of young Cubans who were drinking alcohol.

“After leaving the drinking spot, three Cubans, one guy and two women, followed us to ask for cigarettes.”

Mabokela said they gave the Cubans some cigarettes.

“The guy asked to see my cellphone and while I was trying to respond to that, he grabbed it and they all ran away.

“We gave chase. The guy ran fast but we managed to apprehend the two women with the hope that they were going to help us to get my cellphone back.”

Mabokela said security officers at the residence told them to release the women.

“We told them we’d let them go if they’d phone the guy to give me my phone.

“They eventually called the guy and we got my cellphone back.”

The security officers told Mabokela to open a case of robbery against the Cuban.

“I said I just had a few weeks before leaving Cuba. This meant I wouldn’t have time to attend a court case.

“So I was surprised when we were called by the university and told we were going to be suspended for ill-discipline.”

The Dispatch has seen the letter of suspension, in Spanish, from the medical school.

It alleges Mabokela committed a “serious offence” and had two previous sanctions against him. Mabokela admitted to DispatchLIVE that one of the previous incidents included assaulting a woman, a fellow student.

Translated into English, the letter reads that Mabokela “brought two young people into his room against their will, holding them under threat until his cellphone appeared, in addition to the mistreatment of leaders and officials who came to try to control the situation, while under the influence of alcohol”.

Mabokela, who was to be the first graduate in his family, is pleading with authorities to allow him to finish his studies, even if it means he ends his degree at a South African medical school.

He said his mother was a domestic worker who lives in a shack in Duncan Village.

Family spokesperson advocate Chuma Nonkelela said Mabokela was devastated.

“We got the information that he was suspended but it is not clear what they did.

“ Selby and this other student were the victims of the crime.

“By apprehending those women, they were trying to recover their phone.

“The person who took the phone had to return it because the women were held.

“I believe the decision to suspend them was harsh because no criminal case was opened.

“We are appealing to the SA health ministry to intervene and let them finish their studies.

“This young man was expected to return to SA and go straight to work but now finds himself sitting at home,” Nonkelela said.

Provincial health spokesperson Yonela Dekeda said: “The health attaché in Cuba has just confirmed that the student is appealing the suspension but that the school has not changed its position.

“[The attaché] has since escalated the matter to the deputy minister of health (Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo) to talk to the Cuban minister of health, who is in SA, to intervene in the impasse and plead with the Cuban medical school to reconsider its position.

“The department will await the outcome of the meeting with the two ministers,” Dekeda said.

Dr Mpumzi Mdledle, a clinical manager at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital, who studied in Cuba, also appealed to authorities to forgive Mabokela and the KZN student.

Mdledle previously helped SA students studying medicine in Cuba who encountered challenges while abroad.

“Our ministry of health in SA should humbly apologise to the Cuban ministry of health on behalf of these two boys,” Mdledle said.

“In this Mandela month, I would like us to reflect on one of Tata Nelson Mandela’s qualities, which is forgiveness.

“Tata loved children so much and believed in them. It’s a learning curve for them and it’s part of growth.

“These two kids have learnt from their mistake, and others in Cuba as well have learnt from this predicament.

“Let us give them another chance to prove themselves.”

DispatchLIVE