Fidel Castro at 100: a revolutionary life in the service of humanity

Thursday, 13 August 2026:- The South African Communist Party (SACP) joins the Communist Party of Cuba, the Cuban government and people, and progressive forces throughout the world in commemorating the centenary of the birth of Comrade Fidel Castro Ruz.

Born on 13 August 1926, Fidel devoted his life to the liberation of the Cuban people, the construction of socialism and the worldwide struggle against colonialism, imperialism, racism and capitalist exploitation. His political life demonstrated what disciplined organisation, ideological conviction, revolutionary courage and confidence in ordinary people can achieve, even under the most difficult conditions.

Fidel belonged not only to Cuba. He belongs to all peoples who struggle for freedom, equality, peace and socialism.

Under his leadership, the Cuban Revolution overthrew the US-backed Batista dictatorship on 1 January 1959. It broke the power of foreign corporations, landlords and the local oligarchy, restored Cuba’s sovereignty and placed the country’s resources at the service of its people. The Revolution showed that a small nation, situated approximately 145 kilometres from the US, the principal centre of imperialist power, could determine its own future and defend its independence.

The achievements of socialist Cuba are inseparable from the revolutionary movement led by Fidel and the Communist Party of Cuba. Cuba eradicated illiteracy, greatly expanded access to education, built a universal public healthcare system and trained generations of doctors, teachers, scientists and cultural workers. These gains were made despite decades of economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the US.

The centenary of Fidel must therefore be an occasion not only to remember his life but also to intensify the demand for the immediate and unconditional end of the illegal US blockade against Cuba. The blockade is an act of collective punishment against the Cuban people and a continuing violation of their right to sovereignty and development. The SACP reaffirms its solidarity with the Cuban people in defence of the Revolution and their right to determine their own socialist path without external interference.

A commander of internationalism

For the people of Africa, Fidel’s name occupies a special place in the history of liberation struggles.

Cuban internationalism was not expressed through words alone. At enormous human and material cost, Cuba supported the liberation struggles of Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and other oppressed nations. Cuban combatants stood alongside the people of Angola against the invading forces of apartheid South Africa and their imperialist-backed proxies.

The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale became a decisive turning point in the struggle to change the balance of forces in Southern Africa. The courage of Cuban, Angolan, Namibian and other internationalist combatants contributed to the withdrawal of apartheid forces from Angola, the independence of Namibia and the creation of more favourable conditions for the defeat of apartheid in South Africa. Nelson Mandela correctly described Cuito Cuanavale as a turning point in the liberation of our continent and our people.

Cuba did not go to Africa to seize land, minerals, markets or profits. Cuban internationalists returned home carrying only the remains of their fallen comrades. This stands in sharp contrast to imperialism, which intervenes in other countries to dominate their peoples and plunder their resources.

After the guns fell silent, Cuba continued its internationalism through doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers and other professionals. Thousands of young people from Africa and the rest of the Global South have received education and medical training in Cuba. Cuban professionals have served communities in some of the most difficult and under-served parts of the world.

Cuba’s contribution to our post-1994 transformation

Cuba’s solidarity with the South African people did not end with the defeat of apartheid and our democratic breakthrough in 1994. Cuba continued to support the South African people in advancing the National Democratic Revolution, especially in areas critical to overcoming the racial and class inequalities inherited from colonialism and apartheid.

One of the most enduring expressions of this solidarity is the Nelson Mandela–Fidel Castro Medical Collaboration Programme, established by Presidents Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro in 1996. Through this programme, thousands of young South Africans, many drawn from poor and working-class communities, have received medical training in Cuba and returned to serve the people of our country.

The programme was founded on an approach to healthcare that prioritises prevention, primary healthcare, service to communities and the understanding that access to healthcare is a fundamental human right, not a commodity reserved for those who can afford it. It has contributed substantially to strengthening the human resources of South Africa’s public health system and expanding the pool of doctors available to serve working-class and rural communities.

Cuban doctors and other health professionals have also worked directly in South Africa, particularly in rural districts and other underserved areas where shortages of medical personnel have been most severe. Cuban specialists contributed further to South Africa’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, once again demonstrating that Cuba’s internationalism is practical, selfless and rooted in the defence of human life.

Cooperation between Cuba and democratic South Africa has also extended to engineering, education, public works, water infrastructure, science and technical capacity. This contribution has supported the effort to expand public services and build the capacity of a democratic developmental state.

These programmes are not acts of charity. They are expressions of revolutionary solidarity between two peoples whose struggles are historically connected. They demonstrate how cooperation between nations can be organised around human needs, public service and mutual development rather than private profit, domination and the extraction of wealth.

This is proletarian internationalism in practice: from each people according to their ability and to every people according to their need.

Fidel’s continuing relevance

Fidel’s centenary comes at a time of deepening capitalist crisis, widening inequality, imperialist aggression, war and ecological destruction. Across the world, working people are being made to pay for crises they did not create. Public services are being weakened, unemployment is increasing, basic needs are converted into commodities and the wealth produced by workers is concentrated in the hands of a small capitalist minority.

In this context, Fidel’s revolutionary example remains profoundly relevant.

He taught that sovereignty without social transformation remains incomplete. Political independence must be accompanied by the transfer and transformation of economic power in favour of the working class and the people as a whole. Land, natural resources, finance and the commanding heights of the economy cannot remain under the domination of monopolies while the majority live in poverty.

He taught that socialism is not handed down from above. It must be built through the organised power, political education and conscious participation of workers and poor people.

He taught that internationalism is not an optional expression of sympathy. It is a practical obligation arising from the common struggle of oppressed peoples against imperialism and exploitation.

Above all, Fidel demonstrated the importance of political courage. Revolutionaries cannot allow the apparent strength of the ruling class or the temporary weakness of progressive forces to determine the limits of what they believe is possible. The balance of forces is not fixed. It can be changed through organisation, political clarity, sacrifice and sustained mass struggle.

Our tasks in South Africa

For the SACP, honouring Fidel requires more than ceremonial remembrance. It requires us to advance the struggle for socialism in the concrete conditions of South Africa.

It means rebuilding working-class organisation in workplaces and communities. It means confronting unemployment, poverty, inequality, corruption and the continuing domination of our economy by monopoly capital. It means defending and expanding public healthcare, education, housing and other essential services. It means advancing public, cooperative and community ownership, strengthening the solidarity economy and building democratic working-class power in every sphere of society.

It also means resisting attempts to reduce democracy to periodic elections while economic power remains concentrated in private hands. Elections are an important terrain of struggle, but the liberation of the working class requires organised power in workplaces, communities, the economy and the state.

In the same spirit, South Africa must defend and deepen its relations with Cuba. The Mandela–Castro programme and other forms of cooperation must be strengthened as part of building an effective public sector, advancing National Health Insurance and fulfilling the Freedom Charter’s demand that free medical care and hospitalisation shall be provided for all.

Fidel’s life reminds us that revolutionaries must combine principle with organisation, strategy with action, and national struggle with international solidarity.

The SACP salutes the Communist Party of Cuba and the heroic Cuban people for defending the Revolution through more than six decades of hostility, sabotage, sanctions and ideological warfare. We remember the Cuban internationalists who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of Africa. Their blood forms part of the foundation upon which our democratic breakthrough was built.

On the centenary of Comrade Fidel Castro Ruz’s birth, we declare:

Long Live the Revolutionary Legacy of Comrade Fidel Castro!

Long Live the Cuban Revolution!

End the Imperialist Blockade Against Cuba!