Havana, May 4 (RHC) -- The 18th anniversary of the end of apartheid in South Africa on April 27, 1994, observed as a national holiday in that county, was also celebrated in Cuba.

The Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People (ICAP), together with the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAL), and the South African embassy in Cuba, sponsored the political-cultural event, which not only celebrated the anniversary of the abolition of the apartheid regime, but also honored this year’s centenary of the African National Congress (ANC).

Jorge Risquet, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, led the meeting with Dr. Gwendoline Ramokgopa, the South African Deputy Minister of Health, who has been on a visit to the island since April 30, accompanied by a large delegation. She said, “It is a pleasure and a privilege to share this moment with friends and colleagues who fought with us, who valued the freedom we enjoy in my country.”

Ramokgopa said that the celebration and her entire trip to Cuba inspired them to fight and continue along the path to achieve true equality and end poverty, hunger and disease, and to build a better world needed by the African peoples.

On the Cuban side, Alfonso Fraga, secretary general of the OSPAAL, noted that the April 27, 1994 marks a milestone in the history of indelible South Africa, the African continent and the anti-colonial struggles throughout the Third World. The event concluded with a performance by the African choir Obbá Are Anle, led by Deysi Bravo.

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