Pretoria, South Africa.- Cuban Vice President attended on Sunday a moving ceremony of recognition to veterans of the historic battle of Cuito Cuanavale to end her first day in South Africa.

Organized by the Cuban embassy, the act was staged in the monumental complex Freedom Park in Pretoria to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the battle held in that remote village of the Angolan province of Cuando Cubango, that had the decisive support of Cuban internationalist forces.

Cuban Vice President Ines Maria Chapman will continue this Monday attending a special Summit of the South African Development Community (SADC) in solidarity with Western Sahara, when the world still suffers the attack of colonialism and seizure of lands.

Chapman, who arrived on Sunday, will continue a tour that includes Lesotho and Kenya until April 3. She laid a wreath in Freedom Park, whose names are inscribed on stone.

The big wall lists the names of 2,289 Cubans who fell not only for the emancipation of Africa. The Vice President laid a wreath under the stone with the inscription: ‘Fidel Castro. 1926-2016’, by decision of the monument’s authority also the island was added to the list in 2017.

Minister of Defense, Osiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, and the top official of Justice and Correctional Services, Michael Masutha, were dedicated to the South African that renderes tribute to all South African fighters along thwe road to freedom.

Visibly touched, Mapisa-Ngakula exressed in Freesdom Park lies the history of his country and recalled that ‘the battle of Cuito Cuanavale was against a common enemy, the South African racist regime’.

On the battle that changed the course of the war and accelerated the defeat of the racist regime of apartheid

Sobre la batalla que cambió el curso de la guerra y aceleró la derrota del régimen segregacionista (apartheid) acotó: ‘quiero decir gracias en nombre de los pueblos de África, se lo debemos a Cuba’.

For his art, the Cuban ambassador in South Africa, Rodolfo Benitez, Cuito Cuanavale became a symbol of resistance and courage, ‘after the victory there achieved, the revolutionary forces of Angola, the Swapo, the MK and Cuba against the opprobious army of apartheid.’

The Cuban delegation is also composed by the deputy director general of Bilateral Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, Armando Vergara, as well as the Havana ambassadors of the countries to visit.