South Africa and Cuba

The war in Angola

In 1987 and 1988, a major battle took place near the town of Cuito Cuanavale in Angola. ¹

Angola’s army, called FAPLA, had help from Cuba and the Soviet Union. The rebel group UNITA had help from the South African Defence Force (SADF). ¹

Cuban troops helped defend the town. An early group of 120 Cuban soldiers reached Cuito and helped organise its defences. ¹

The fighting built up over months. On 14 August 1987, fourteen Angolan and Cuban brigades began a large attack. In October 1987, the Angolan army’s 47th Brigade was largely destroyed at the Lomba River. ¹

The SADF launched its last major attack on Cuito Cuanavale on 23 March 1988. ¹ Keith Somerville, a visiting professor at the University of Kent, calls it the largest conventional battle in Africa since the Second World War. He says it ended with a Cuban bombing of the Calueque dam on 27 June 1988. ²

Who won?

South African History Online lists three views of the battle: a defeat for the SADF, a tactical withdrawal, or a stalemate. ¹

The Angolan, Cuban and ANC view is that South Africa wanted to rescue UNITA and take the town’s air base. They say Angolan and Cuban forces stopped it. ¹

Nelson Mandela described the battle as “a turning point for the liberation of our continent and my people.” ¹ On a visit to Cuba in 1991, he called it a victory for all Africa. ²

What came after

Talks followed, and the countries taking part included Angola, Cuba, the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States. ² The talks led to South African and Cuban forces leaving Angola. ¹

Namibia became independent in March 1990. ² Mandela said the defeat of the SADF made that independence possible. ²

Freedom Park, near Pretoria, names 2,070 Cuban soldiers who died in Angola between 1975 and 1988. ¹

Doctors

In 1996, South Africa and Cuba signed an agreement to train South African medical students in Cuba. The first group left in 1997. ³

Students spend one year learning Spanish and five years studying in Cuba. Then they do 18 months of clinical training at a South African medical school. Each bursary student must later work for the state for as many years as the state funded them. ³

In 2018, about 700 fifth-year students came home and none of South Africa’s 10 medical schools could take them. ³ In 2025, only Gauteng and North West interviewed candidates. ³

Sources disagree on how many doctors the programme has produced. The health department’s spokesperson said more than 4,000. ³ In November 2022, then Health Minister Joe Phaahla said that 2,617 of 3,369 recruited students had graduated. ³ In August 2026, the Cuban ambassador told a parliamentary committee that Cuba had trained 3,243 South Africans as doctors. ⁴

Cuban doctors have also worked in South Africa. The ambassador said Cuba sent 463 doctors between 1996 and 1998, and 55 of them stayed. ⁴

In April 2020, 217 Cuban doctors arrived to help South Africa during the Covid-19 outbreak. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said they were there to help contain the outbreak and were not filling vacancies. ⁵

Engineers

In April 2021, the Department of Water and Sanitation welcomed 24 Cuban engineers. They came to work as advisors in provinces and municipalities. ⁶

The union Solidarity asked a court to stop the project. The department said it would cost R18.3 million a year, not the R64 million that had been reported. ⁷

The sources we found do not say how the court case ended.

Cooperation today

In March 2025, South Africa told the United Nations that it had recommitted to cooperation with Cuba in health, basic education, water, sanitation and public works. ⁸

South Africa also wants the US embargo on Cuba to end. In August 2026, Parliament’s international relations committee backed lifting it immediately and unconditionally. ⁴

The committee’s discussions will feed into South Africa’s preparations for the 19th session of the South Africa-Cuba Joint Consultative Mechanism. The committee wants more cooperation on agriculture, renewable energy, tourism, infrastructure and skills development. ⁴

In September 2026, Minister Ronald Lamola of DIRCO repeated South Africa’s call for an end to the embargo at the UN General Assembly. He used the word “blockade.” ⁹

For the yearly UN vote, see How the UN votes on the US embargo of Cuba.