Pretoria – Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and a high-level ministerial and business delegation have arrived in Havana, Cuba for the second leg of a three-nation visit.
The Deputy President arrived in Cuba on Wednesday after concluding his visit in Sweden. He is expected travel to Mexico on 26 October.
His visit to Cuba is aimed at consolidating bilateral political, economic and trade ties between the two countries and strengthen co-operation at a multilateral level.
“The South African delegation will utilise the opportunity of the visit to strengthen strong ties and bonds of friendship between our two peoples developed in the context of the struggle for freedom in South Africa,” said the Presidency.
Deputy President Ramaphosa will hold bilateral discussions with his Cuban counterpart Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel focusing on bilateral political and economic relations, cooperation at a multilateral level as well as an overview of the updating of the Socialist Economic Model, which will also include high-level ministerial discussions.
He will also participate in ceremonies to lay wreaths at both the OR Tambo Bust and the statue of Cuban hero Jose Marti in Havana.
He will also address South African medical students based at the Cuban Medical University of Latin America, pay site visits to a Cuban pharmaceutical plant, tour the Policlinic, the Immunology Centre and the Mariel Free Port and Museum of Literacy.
In addition, the Deputy President will address the South Africa-Business Forum.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in May 1994 following the dawn of democracy in South Africa in 1994.
South Africa and Cuba established the Joint Consultative Mechanism in 2001 at the level of Deputy Ministers, to regulate structured relations between the two countries.
The two countries have since 1994 signed a number of agreements in various sectors and cooperated in a number of fields. South Africa is a beneficiary of Cuba’s ongoing assistance in the areas of health, labour, defence, social development, housing and infrastructure.
During the State visit to Cuba in December 2010, President Jacob Zuma announced that South Africa would offer the Cuba Economic Assistance Package to the tune of R350 million to assist with agricultural development processes as well as the reconstruction of infrastructure devastated by natural disasters.
Through the SA-Cuba Health Agreement, more than 420 South African students from disadvantaged backgrounds have qualified in the field of medicine with over 3 000 more students currently undergoing training. South Africa currently has over 300 Cuban medical personnel, engineers and science and mathematics teachers working in the country. – SAnews.gov.za
