Student’s body to return from Cuba

TWO MONTHS AFTER DEATH: DELAY DISTURBS FAMILY

Sibusiso Qongqo will not be cremated, his body will be buried at home.

It will be exactly two months since the death of an Eastern Cape medical student in Cuba when his body will be returned for burial at home at the end of June. Yesterday, the Eastern Cape government finally announced the remains of Sibusiso Qongqo would be repatriated, ending his family’s long battle for him to return home after his death on 29 April.

The body remained in Havana, Cuba, after the repatriation was delayed by a Covid-19 lockdown on the island country.

But yesterday Premier Oscar Mabuyane announced that his government would speed up the process to return the body to South Africa.

He said the body would be returned by the end of this month with the help of the department of international relations and co-operation and the SA National Defence Force.

“As the provincial government, together with the national government, we are working very hard to bring back the mortal remains of Sibusiso Qongqo. One thing is for sure – his remains will not be cremated in Cuba,” Mabuyane said.

Under the Cuban lockdown regulations, burial has to take placed within three days. The concession for Qongqo’s body to stay there for so long was made specially for South Africa.

But it will be some time before the ensuing war of words between the provincial authorities and the family ends as the delay will add to his parent’s anxiety.

His mother Nolubabalo, who is 60, is said to be sickly and struggling to cope with what has happened to her child.

Qongqo, who was doing his fifth and last year in medicine, was among a group of South African students doing medical in-service training in Cuba as part of the Nelson Mandela-Fidel Castro programme.

He was expected to graduate and return home as a qualified doctor in July.

The irate family approached the media and accused the provincial health authorities and the national government of failing to cooperate to help them repatriate Qongqo’s remains.

There was also disagreement with the authorities over whether the body should be cremated or not. The provincial department of health said the family initially agreed to cremation, but changed their minds and said the body must be repatriated for burial at home.

The provincial department was also accused of being unwilling to pay for the flight to bring the body home.

The department and the national international relations and cooperation department cited lack of flights for the delay and denied deliberately delaying the repatriation and not co-operating with the family.