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Speaker Mbete Reaffirms Solidarity With Cuba During Parliament’s Official Visit

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Speaker Mbete Reaffirms Solidarity With Cuba During Parliament’s Official Visit

Baleka Mbete & Cyril Ramaphosa
Baleka Mbete & Cyril Ramaphosa

20th September 2018

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/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

Cuba is deeply appreciative of the diplomatic relations it enjoys with South Africa and continues to count on its support for the lifting of economic and trade embargo imposed by the United States.
 
So said Mr Esteban Lazo Hernández, President of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power, during his meeting yesterday with the official South African parliamentary delegation.
 
National Assembly Speaker Ms Baleka Mbete is leading the delegation of Members of Parliament, four of whom are Chief Whips of the largest political parties represented in Parliament. On Wednesday, the delegation met Mr Hernández and other members of the Cuban Parliament and discussed a range of issues, including strengthening relations between the Cuban and South African Parliament and relations generally between the two countries.
 
The official visit follows an invitation from Mr Hernández to Ms Mbete and is in keeping with the fifth Parliament’s strategic objective of strengthening relations with Parliaments across the world and to enrich scrutiny and oversight of Executive action.
 
Cuba is counting on South Africa to support a resolution at next week’s United Nations General Assembly to end the decades-long United States of America (USA) economic embargo on Cuba, Mr Hernández said. He thanked South Africa for its ongoing support, particularly in the area of economic investment. South Africa and Cuba have signed several trade agreements, despite the USA’s embargo that continues to imperil efforts to expand investment. Cuba is currently in the process of reforming its constitution to further unlock the country’s economic potential, among other things.
 
Mr Hernández recalled the remarkable friendship between South Africa’s first democratically elected President, Nelson Mandela, and former Cuban President Mr Fidel Castro. In this, the centenary year of Madiba’s birth, it was significant that the United Nations and the Inter Parliamentary Union also planned to mark the occasion.
 
Speaker Mbete thanked Mr Hernández for the invitation to pay an official visit to South Africa’s sister country and reaffirmed our continued solidarity and indebtedness to Cuba for its role in our liberation struggle. The South African and Cuban Parliaments had interacted at various levels over the years and the commitment of the two legislatures to create a world of peace and friendship remained unwavering.
 
Said Ms Mbete: “Cuba’s exemplary solidarity to the people of South Africa and other countries all over the world is appreciated. We would like an in-depth discussion with your Parliament regarding certain challenges that might often frustrate some areas of co-operation or partnership. The report we received yesterday, when we visited Cuba’s Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Centre, which also partners South Africa particularly on the hepatitis B vaccine, that often we are non-responsive regarding certain areas for potential cooperation is concerning. I, therefore, agree with you that we need to take the political and socio-economic relations we already have much further and deeper. We each need a better understanding of the difficulties that might be an obstacle towards achieving even better, stronger and improved relations.”
 
The parliamentary delegation also visited the José Marti Memorial, to lay wreaths in honour of Cuba’s hero for national independence. The delegation also laid wreaths at the tombstone of South African struggle stalwart and novelist Alex La Guma, who died in Cuba in the 1980s.
 
Today, the delegation will meet with South African medical students at the Latin America School of Medicine and with the Cuban Institute of Friendships with the Peoples.
 
Parliament’s delegation includes Ms Mmatlala Borotho, (House Chairperson for International Relations), Mr Jackson Mthembu (Chief Whip, African National Congress), Ms Dorries Dlakude (Deputy Chief Whip, African National Congress), Mr John Steenhuisen (Chief Whip, Democratic Alliance), Mr Nyiko Shivambu (Chief Whip, Economic Freedom Fighters), Mr Narend Singh (Chief Whip, Inkatha Freedom Party), Ms Tasneem Motara (Provincial Whip: Gauteng), and Ms Regina Lesoma (Whip, Portfolio Committee on International Relations and Co-operation).
 
Issued By The Parliament Of The Republic Of South Africa

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