FORMER ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule has criticised the Free State government.
He said the government was wrong to cancel overseas studies which he regards as a jewellery of job creation and powerhouse of extreme knowledge in medicine, engineering, agriculture, information technology and renewable energy.
Magashule said without fear that government made a terrible mistake for cancelling overseas studies.
He said those who took part in the process of demolishing overseas studies are politically illiterate, uneducated, lazy to read, not organic intellectuals and don't plan for the future.
Magashule said during the 2009 ANC manifesto under former president Jacob Zuma, whom he classified as an organic intellectual, education was declared a number one priority.
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"This was our manifesto. We promised people to make education fashionable. That's why we sent 1 600 students to study in well-developed countries, including Russia, Cuba, India, China, Portugal, Bulgaria, Germany, Turkey and Island of Madeira. We have injected millions of rands," he said.
According to Magashule, countries such as Russia and India are specialist in nuclear, acro-processing and information technology (IT).
Magashule told Daily Sun that his administration sent almost 300 students to Cuba to study medicine because Cuba is the best on prevention of diseases, and those students are doctors in different hospitals in Gauteng and Free State.
"No town in the Free State has no medical doctor and engineer. When you take over as a political leader, you educate the youth," said Magashule
The Free State premier's spokesman, Sello Dithebe, confirmed that government cancelled the foreign trained-students programme.
This is after the current administration under Mxolisi Dukwana met the University of Free State's vice-chancellor Professor Francis Petersen, principal of the university, Professor Nicholas Pearce, as well as the institution's head of school of clinical medicine and his team to review the project, which includes medical students to help them overcome their careers and have their qualifications recognised in South Africa.
The project has been questioned by many political parties, calling it a scam of highly orchestrated corruption.
Dithebe said these students are obliged to undergo a preparatory programme, pass that programme and still have their original institutions of study in foreign lands accredited by the Health Professions Council of South Africa to be able to handle patients.
He further indicated that government, in collaboration with the university, will focus on the rehabilitation of water that occurs from mining activity with a specific focus on acid mine drainage, firmly positioning the province to focus on water, food and energy security, as well the skills revolution.
"The university and government have constituted a team that is led by Professor Nicholas Pearce and the acting DDG Dr Molefinyana Phera, representing the university and government respectively," he said.
The foreign-trained students' initiative, initially a pilot project between the late president Nelson Mandela and Cuban counterpart Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, aimed to send students to Cuba for advanced medical qualifications matching South African standards.
