Just over a week ago, on the 11th of May, South Africa and Cuba celebrated 29 years of diplomatic relations. And we have seen the bilateral relationship between the two play out throughout the years. More recently, in 2020 Cuba sent 216 healthcare workers to South Africa to combat the Coronavirus and then South African student doctors were sent to Cuba to further their studies and then 24 Cuban engineers arrived in the country to assist with addressing South Africa’s water crisis in 2021 and in 2022, the government announced that it would donate about R50 million to Cuba to help it address its food security challenges. With all these developments in recent years, we want to take a look at Cuba and South Africa’s bilateral relations in 2023.

Professor David Monyae, Director for the Centre for Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg and Cuban Ambassador to South Africa, Enrique Orta Gonzalez join Lerato Mbele for the conversation.