An academic study of the doctors programme, published in 2007 by British researcher Daniel Hammett, indicated that initially families were allowed to accompany participating doctors to the country (although this was later halted), and the doctors were paid according to South African scales. All in all, a fairly benign picture, albeit one complicated by instances of Cuban doctors trying to opt out of the programme and approaching the courts to remain in South Africa. The latter was decidedly inconvenient for South Africa, since it both broke with the ideological narrative, and invoked another deeply ideological commitment for South Africa, labour legislation, in doing so.
