Human Rights Watch has documented evidence of systematic human rights abuses in Cuba, including torture, arbitrary imprisonment and extrajudicial executions, yet today the ANC is proposing that this government declares its "solidarity" with the Castro regime by giving it R350 million over and above the R1,1 billion of bad Cuban debt that President Zuma wrote off last year.
This solidarity grant is unconditional. It contains not a single word about respecting human rights, moving towards a freer society or the release of political prisoners. [Interjections.] If the ANC wants to betray its history of standing up for liberty and democracy, it is free to do so, but this Parliament should not. [Interjections.]
Ironically, the solidarity grant is being financed from an African Renaissance Fund in the Department of International Relations. Why this fund is being used to support a country thousands of kilometres from Africa is one question. But the more important point is that this fund is being used to prop up a system of government whose ideas are completely opposed to the idea of an African Renaissance.
The Castro regime should be consigned to the pages of political history, interesting only for what it can teach us about how not to organise society. It is a modern absurdity on the fringe of global politics. We should not be supporting it.
If the ANC wants to support Ral Castro, then it should use Chancellor House money to do so. [Interjections.] The ANC should not make South Africa pay for its friendship with the Castro regime. Thank you. [Applause.]