Valdes Mesa was received at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.

The Cuban vice president is leading an official delegation that also includes First Deputy Public Health Minister Tania Margarita Cruz Hernández, Deputy Foreign Minister Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo, and Luis Amoros Nuñez, Director of Sub-Saharan Africa department at the Cuban Foreign Ministry (MINREX).

According to the visit’s program, during his stay in South Africa, Valdes Mesa expects to meet with Cuban collaborators in the country, national residents, and political figures of the African nation.

The visit also takes place within the framework of the 30th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations.

The official establishment of those relations was marked by the visit of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, in 1994, to participate in the inauguration ceremony of newly elected President Nelson Mandela.

During these three decades, he said, the Cuba-South Africa relations have proven to be a successful example of South-South cooperation that had influenced both countries’ peoples and enhanced their mutual admiration.