Race quotas must go

THE article “Hope for foreign trained doctors,” (the POST, September 8-12), highlights one of the worst forms of government incompetence in South Africa.

Obsession with race has divided our country and has seen people placed in critical positions with no experience or expertise.

Politicians must realise that South Africans, irrespective of their race, have had enough of appointments based on the colour of the skin and not on the ability to deliver.

Since the Department of Health introduced race quotas in medical school admissions, we have seen aspiring, dedicated and bright Indian South African students register at foreign institutions to qualify as doctors.

The fact that they did this at huge sacrifice and cost, is testament to their commitment to the profession.

Once qualified, their hopes of returning to the country of their birth and serving the nation were dashed.

This government refused to allow them to write the board examination to enable these young doctors to practise in South Africa.

The irony is that there is a shortage of doctors in this country and the government is prepared to import Cubantrained doctors instead of absorbing qualified South African doctors.

It is high time the government remove its racial blinkers in the interest of improving the quality of life of all our citizens. We are all South African and in critical areas like medicine, race should have no place at all.

As African Democratic Change (ADeC) we believe the only hope for South Africa is to dismantle all the racial boundaries so that we all work towards making this country the envy of Africa and the world.

VISVIN REDDY ADeC president