The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal and its alliance partners want a hero's welcome for the group of 28 Cuban specialist doctors who will be deployed to KwaZulu-Natal to serve as reinforcements in the fight against Covid-19.

The secretariat of the alliance, made up of the secretaries of the ANC, the SA Communist Party and Cosatu after its ordinary meeting also lashed out at those it accused of being against the deployment of the doctors.

“It is a matter of grave concern that some elements in our country, including from within our own ranks, have entered into a strange coalition with reactionary forces to mobilise and lead an offensive against the Cuban doctors,” said the secretariat statement.

A draft report sent to the Treasury projected that SA will be forking out more than R430m to pay for the Cuban medical help, drawing criticism from local doctors who cannot themselves find work.

The three alliance provincial secretaries, the ANC's Mdumiseni Ntuli, the SACP's Themba Mthembu and Cosatu’s Edwin Mkhize called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to “protect the history of the two countries”, including that of its shared medical resources.

“The alliance calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa and the government to ensure that nothing succeeds which is designed to undermine and compromise our historic relationship with the Cuban revolutionaries.

“It is a matter of grave concern that some elements in our country, including from within our own ranks, have entered into a strange coalition with reactionary forces to mobilise and lead an offensive against the Cuban doctors,” the statement read.

The medical brigade of 187 Cuban doctors who will be deployed to hot spots across the country, are now under quarantine.

The secretariat characterised the Cuban medics as “true soldiers in a war against the pandemic and revolutionaries who have internalised the imperative to confront and defeat the enemy wherever it rears its ugly head”.

“The alliance secretariat in KwaZulu-Natal will engage and seek to persuade the provincial alliance political council to develop and evolve programmes and activities to welcome the Cubans who will be deployed to KwaZulu-Natal over the next weeks,” the secretariat concluded.