Mr Speaker, perhaps the hon Bhoola can explain to this House why he wanted to join the DA and why we didn't want him. So, he is now ... [Inaudible.] [Laughter.]
On Tuesday, in this House, Minister Motsoaledi accused Western Cape provincial Minister Theuns Botha of lying about the University of Cape Town, UCT, programme for training medical students. I have contacted the provincial Minister and the facts are as follows.
Both Minister Motsoaledi and Minister Botha did speak to the universities. It was, however, the Western Cape government which arranged with the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch for additional positions specifically for rural medical students to be trained. The Western Cape offered 20 bursaries to UCT and the University of Stellenbosch, of which 13 out of the 20 were allocated to students from rural areas.
In addition, there has been a series of interactions with both universities and the Western Cape government with regard to significantly increasing the intake of local students to study medicine as an alternative to sending them to Cuba.
It is beyond ironic that the government, that continues to allege that the DA is influenced by foreign countries, sends South African medical students to be trained in Cuba. This shows that the ANC does not, in fact, have confidence in our own medical training and that they can take the full blame for that after 20 years of being in power. The DA is committed to South Africa and improving our education and training systems so that we can be the leaders in fields such as medicine. The DA-run Western Cape is leading the way in this regard. [Applause.]