National 30.11.2016 02:23 pm
Eric Naki
Cuban revolutionary icon Fidel Castro died late on November 25, 2016 in Havana, his brother, President Raul Castro, announced on national television. / AFP PHOTO / CUBADEBATE.CU / ALEX CASTRO
The augmented annual Central Committee meeting, which was to be held from Friday until Sunday, has been postponed to December 14-16.
The South African Communist Party has shown respect for the late Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro, when the party postponed its all-important congress to mourn his passing.
The party said yesterday that the augmented annual Central Committee meeting, which was to be held from Friday until Sunday, had been postponed to December 14-16. Party spokesperson Alex Mashilo said the decision was made specifically to mourn Castro's death and to allow the SACP delegation led by general-secretary Blade Nzimande to attend Castro's memorial and burial services. Castro died at the age of 90 on Friday
"The SACP has strong fraternal relations with the Communist Party of Cuba, as is our struggle for national liberation and social emancipation and the Cuban revolution. Our struggle for socialism in South Africa and the socialist revolution in Cuba are an integral part of a single whole - the struggle by world revolutionary forces for universal emancipation," Mashilo said.
He paid tribute to Cuba's role in the anti-apartheid struggle and National Party dominance in southern Africa. "Our own transition to the current democratic dispensation in April 1994 came as a result, among other invaluable contributions, of the defeat of apartheid South Africa in Angola by Cuba under the sterling leadership of Comrade Fidel. The defeat forced the apartheid regime to come to the tables in the face of its days having been clearly numbered by the outstanding leadership of Comrade Fidel," Mashilo said.
The man who was popularly known as El Comandante inspired the black South African liberation struggle along with his friend, Che Guevara, for his resilient anti-imperialist fight. He toppled the corrupt regime of former president Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and ruled until he handed over reins to his brother Raul ten years ago after Fidel became sick.
He attended the late former president Nelson Mandela's presidential inauguration in May 1994 while his brother Raul came to the icon's funeral in December 2013.
http://citizen.co.za/news/news-national/1361885/sacp-postpones-congress-honour-castro/