CUBAN FIVE CAN LEARN FROM SA ’ S UNRULY PARLY
It is interesting but not chaotic, says Gwede
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has slammed the Western Cape High Court’s decision that unruly members of parliament cannot be removed by police officers.
“A court of law says it is OK to be chaotic in parliament, to me that ’ s problematic,” Mantashe said yesterday in Wattville, east of Johannesburg when welcoming the five men dubbed the “Cuban Five ”.
He said he was unfazed by the possibility of the five Cubans visiting the country would witness the chaos in parliament.
“Parliament is interesting but not chaotic. It will be a lesson for them on what not to do,” he said.
The Cuban Five arrived in South Africa yesterday on a two-week visit. Mantashe, Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini and SA Communist Party second deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila were among the leaders of the tripartite alliance who welcomed the Cuban Five – Rene and Fernando Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labinino and Antonio Guerrero.
About 100 activists clad in red T-shirts and black berets welcomed the Cuban Five. Three of the men were deployed to Angola during the 1970s and 1980s as part of the Cuban forces fighting against the then SA Defence Force and the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the southern African country ’ s civil war and the war for Namibia ’ s independence.
Fernando Gonzalez, who served in Cabinda, Angola, between 1987 and 1989, said it was a great experience to be “our brothers as Cubans, revolutionaries and human beings. That experience hardened a person ”.
Hernandez said they were in the country to pay tribute to late former ANC presidents, OR Tambo and Nelson Mandela and other African heroes.
Tambo ’ s son Dali welcomed the group at his father ’ s grave in Wattville, where they laid wreaths.
The Cuban Five were arrested in 1998 by the US and accused of espionage. They were released only last year after a worldwide campaign to free them and their
“Parliament will be a lesson for them on what
not to do
freedom was hailed as possibly the start of the normalisation of relations between Cuba and the US. Cuba has been under a US blockade for decades and Rene Gonzalez said that while they harboured no hatred against the US, they “don ’ t want to go back to capitalism.
“We managed to get out of prison without bitterness,” said Rene Gonzalez, who also served in Angola in the late 1970s.
Mantashe said although the Cuban Five were now free, there were two burning issues that remained.
“The illegal blockade continues and the US military base at Guantanamo Bay must be removed, ” he said.