The Sunday Times report, SANDF's Cuba drug probed (November 15), is an endeavour on the part of a small fraction of insiders and others to pour as much mud as possible on deepening Cuba-South Africa relations to achieve their goal, whatever goal that is, and in the process cast aspersions on the person and integrity of the head of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), Gen Solly Shoke.
In the prevailing environment and amid attempts to taint the organs of state, the SANDF will almost certainly also come into focus - both for remnants of the old SADF and others.
It is also obvious that the SANDF's deepening programmatic relationship with Cuba has become an avenue through which these battles could be waged in an attempt to win public support through an anti-Cuba agenda. The SANDF also has a contingent of trainees in the second city of Cuba, Santiago de Cuba, who have not escaped the scrutiny of the anti-Cuba factions doing the rounds.
The article is full of inaccuracies and largely based on ideologically politically biased anti-Cuba sentiment, rather than science, as it purports. It doesn't give us new insights or other perspectives around the issues raised. Unfortunately, we are not any the wiser after reading it.
We, the Friends of Cuba Society (FOCUS-SA) - a broad volunteer solidarity movement with Cuba - know all too well, and for a fact, that anti-Cuba sentiments are driven ideologically, with the explicit goal of trying to weaken the Cuban economic-political system, including key scientific achievements in areas such as the health sector (bio-technological advances). This is also in pursuance of, and an extension of, the illegal and immoral US blockade against Cuba.
As such the report's suggestion that "the auditor-general is investigating how the SANDF imported a dubious and unregistered Covid-19 drug" is not only far-fetched, but meant to be a scarecrow.
The auditor-general will from time to time request responses and explanations on various aspects in the general line of financial deployment of our rands and cents in all organs of state, in an effort to find out if there's value for money in the rands spent.
Suggesting that Cuba's Heberon interferon Alpha-2B is "untested" and that "military patients were to act as guinea pigs for Cuba" is downright insulting and baseless.
That Cuba has a long history of developing interferon Alpha-2B and using it for its own internationalist medical brigades, such as the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade (which was deployed in Ebola-infested West Africa), is well known and easy to establish.
Cuba will provide the drug to all its citizens as part of its broader strategy to combat Covid-19, and there are clinical trials on a much bigger scale currently taking place in a relationship between the People's Republic of China and Cuba.
In February 2020 already, Cuba offered China help with efforts to contain Covid-19. A public sector firm, BioCubaFarma, increased its production of interferon Alpha-2B, and by end of that month 150,000 double-dose vials were sent to China.
A China-Cuba Centre for Biotechnological Innovation in Hunan, China, is examining whether the innate immune system can be activated and, if activated, will produce a specific immunity against the virus.
A China-Cuba Centre for Biotechnological Innovation in Hunan, China, is examining whether the innate immune system can be activated and, if activated, will produce a specific immunity against the virus
The US government has been putting immense pressure on a number of countries to get them to reject Cuba's helping hand, even in the midst of the worst pandemic enveloping the globe. Outgoing US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has led a vitriolic charge, accusing the island of profiting from the pandemic.
As all evidence suggest, parts of the socialist world have been able to handle the virus more effectively than other countries. The statistics of the coronavirus pandemic in these countries are lower, and the management of the pandemic is under control as pandemic protocols are implemented while supporting the livelihoods of people.
The report suggests that Heberon interferon Alpha-2B was procured illegally from Cuba. This is very mischievous and tantamount to spreading untruths.
This drug was procured legally and within the SANDF-South African Military Health Service (SAMHS) supply chain management rules, which differ from those of civilian establishments.
The drug also has a superior safety profile to that of other interferons, such as Intron interferon, which is registered with the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). It has a unique "human serum antigen profile".
What the report also fails to point out is that Heberon was procured for use in defence force protection and among vulnerable groups. Such use received approval for the first patient, as required under a section 21 application.
The military fully appreciates and understands its own rules - which are distinct from those of civilian institutions - and the accountability measures when procuring various goods, including pharmaceuticals.
It should have been obvious to the writer that the rules used by SANDF-SAMHS are different from those that apply in cases of acquisition and importation of goods by normal for-profit civilian pharmaceutical wholesale entities.
If any attempt was made to be balanced in this reportage, the following basic fact would have surfaced: that the military is developing a research protocol, which will be submitted for approval by the SAHPRA, to use Heberon to conduct research.
This step was necessitated by the military's realisation of the importance of Heberon as an immunomodulator. Should approval be granted, Heberon will be used for training and development in SA with the assistance and co-operation of the Cuban doctors and scientific community. This is similar to the kind of collaboration developing between China and Cuba.
Because there's no single intervention that has unequivocally been proven to be the silver bullet against Covid-19, and given the profit-driven initiatives for the vaccine, our country will be last in line when these hit the shelves.
The efficacy of any health intervention is not established in the boardroom, as the antiretrovirals debacle starkly reminds us. Thanks to the many scientists who opposed that particular approach to medical science, today we have the largest antiretroviral rollout in the world, saving countless lives of our people.
We believe that, faced with the present uncertainties about an intervention to complement the proven interventions of face masks and social distancing, our scientists will again stand up and be counted on the side of science.
Matlhako is general secretary of the Friends of Cuba Society (FOCUS-SA)
l We stand by our story - Editor
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