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News > South Africa

'Together We'll Overcome' ANC Leader Tells the World's Peoples

  • African National Congress General Secretary Elias Sekgobelo Magashule, Johannesburg, South Africa, May 15, 2020.

    African National Congress General Secretary Elias Sekgobelo Magashule, Johannesburg, South Africa, May 15, 2020. | Photo: ANC

Published 15 May 2020
Opinion

South Africa's Sekgobelo demanded an end to the U.S. harassment of Cuba and Venezuela.

The African National Congress (ANC) General Secretary Elias Sekgobelo Magashule Friday delivered a public lecture about the significance of human solidarity and internationalism and the role of the Cuban revolution in the struggle against imperialism and colonialism.

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“We are proud and much encouraged that young people appreciate that the important question of human solidarity and internationalism is at the center stage of our common desire to create a peaceful and prosperous world,” Sekgobelo said.

When millions of people face the COVID-19 pandemic, the ANC leader recalled that cooperation between peoples is essential to keep the fight for a better world order alive.

“The question of solidarity and internationalism is of profound importance... it is about the future of the overwhelming majority of the suffering people, it is about their common aspirations, their being, their history, present, and the future.”

In recalling what “the monstrous system of apartheid colonialism” represented in his country, Sekgobelo​​​​​​​ highlighted the role that Cuba has played in the fight against these and other abominable forms of domination and exploitation in Africa.

“Cuba is the only nation that paid back its moral debt to the victims of imperialism and colonialism. The Cuban revolution paid it not because it was involved in the enslavement, oppression, or exploitation, but because of its gratitude to those nations which most of its people were enslaved by the Colonial powers, to build its economic infrastructure.”

The Cuban revolutionaries' internationalism, which is currently expressed through its brigades of health workers, has generated deep affections in the people who compare the generosity of a Caribbean country with the attitudes of the developed countries.

“The friendship between the people of the African continent and the Cuban revolution... is nurtured by the most extraordinary gestures of humility, a revolution embedded on the foundations of our common struggle and hardships, love, and kindness.”​​​​​​​

The South African politician stressed that the Cubans' solidarity has not diminished even in the worst moments of the imperial siege against their revolution.

“Cuba has been at the forefront assisting many countries during difficulties when some of them were confronted by calamities… Even today, the Cuban medical brigade, the 'Army of the White Gowns', have been deployed in over twenty-three countries of the world to fulfill its humanitarian mission of combating the outbreak of the pandemic.”

Besides asking the Trump administration to lift the economic blockade imposed on Cuba, the ANC leader condemned the U.S. unilateral sanctions against other nations.

"We are making a call to the U.S. government to end the unjust unilateral economic blockades against the people of Nicaragua, Venezuela, Iran, Palestine, North Korea, Russia, Zimbabwe, and many other countries," he stressed.

Sekgobelo also criticized the terrorist actions that President Donald Trump's administration promotes or tolerates against Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

"We know that Venezuela has the largest reserves of oil, gold, diamond, coal, water, and many of the precious stones... This is the heartbeat of the war of destabilization by forces of imperialism against the Bolivarian revolution led by President Maduro."

The ANC leader concluded his lecture stating that “together we shall overcome. What remains is to take what is ours... a better world of freedom and dignity.”​​​​​​​

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