• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 10 / 10 / 2011

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As part of a pilot project, the Department of Home Affairs will begin with the re-training of 350 officers of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said that Russia and Cuba served as models for the new training system.

In a first for Cuba’s growing skilled-labor exports, the South African government agreed to use a dozen interior ministry officials from Cuba to train new immigration officers, South Africa’s Business Day reported.

Cuba has sent teachers, doctors and sports coaches abroad, generating billions of dollars in revenues for the government.

However, this is the first publicized case of security expertise being exported.

The South African government decided to fill the vacant jobs in the immigration department with aging soldiers to rejuvenate the armed forces. Many former members of the liberation movement joined the South African forces in the 1990s, without any formal skills.

“If we take these 350 officers from the defence force, they will have to employ another 350 younger officers,” Dlamini-Zuma said, according to Business Day. “So, we are contributing to job creation at that level although it is within the cluster.”

The 12 immigration officials from Cuba will “train the trainers,” who would then be able to continue training immigration officials, Dlamini-Zuma said. They will return to Cuba once the training program is up and running.

The Department of Home affairs will pay for the Cuban officials as deputy directors on the government pay scale.

Source: http://www.cubastandard.com/2011/10/09/