Cape Town International Airport was packed to the rafters on Monday as local activists welcomed the Cuban Five. Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González will officially be hosted by the ANC on a South African tour from the 21st of June to the 3rd of July 2015. The Cuban Five will make their first public appearance at UWC for an event on Monday evening.

The visit to South Africa is seen as an historic event due to the long years of support that South Africa has rendered to the campaign for the release of the Cuban Five. The Cuban Five all served in Angola during the liberation struggle against Apartheid Forces.

“The purpose of their visit to South Africa is to thank the people and the Government, including the Tripartite Alliance, who have used every available opportunity to call for their release,” DIRCO spokesperson Nelson Kgwete told VOC Drivetime.

René González was released on October 7, 2011 following the completion of 13 years of his sentence with a further three years of probation in the US. He was allowed to return to Cuba for his father’s funeral on 22 April 2013, and a federal judge allowed him to stay there provided that he renounce his United States citizenship. Fernando González was released on February 27, 2014.

The remaining members were released on December 17, 2014 in a prisoner swap with Cuba for an American intelligence officer in what is seen as a precursor to the joint announcements by President Castro of Cuba and President Obama of the United States of America that the two countries will work towards the full restoration of diplomatic ties.
BDS South Africa has commended the ANC and South African Government for bringing the Cuban Five to SA, calling it a sign of progressive internationalism, an “internationalism that contributed to our struggle”.

“As a South African organization, our solidarity with the Palestinian people stems from the principle of internationalism. Our internationalism and international solidarity informs, enthuses and inspires our support for the revolutionary people of Palestine as well as for the revolutionary people of Cuba. BDS South Africa is inspired by the freeing of the Cuban Five which was a victory for international solidarity,” said spokesperson Muhammed Desai.

“The Cubans and Palestinians stood with us South Africans in the darkest days of Apartheid, we now stand with them not as a favour but out of an internationalist duty.”

Cuba has furthermore participated in the reconstruction of South Africa after the demise of Apartheid by training, inter alia, scores of South African youth in medicine in Cuba. Cuba’s ongoing support for the South African Government’s main priorities through the implementation of joint programmes in health, social development, defence, housing and infrastructure is significant.

In addition, the deployment of Cuban doctors, engineers and technical experts throughout South Africa is a further demonstration of Cuba’s commitment to work with South Africa to address the infrastructural back-logs inherited from the pre-1994 period. There are currently almost 3000 South African medical students studying in Cuba. A further 45 will be starting their studies in medicine in Cuba in September 2015. VOC