Havana, August 23 (RHC) -- In his first activity in South Africa, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel paid tribute today to South African leader Nelson Mandela at the South African Government headquarters.

As reported by the Presidency on Twitter, the president placed a wreath in Pretoria, on behalf of the Cuban people and government in front of the nine-meter statue that immortalizes the exceptional leader who fought against apartheid and a dear friend of Cuba and Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro.

We are already in the homeland of the brilliant and extraordinary leader, (...) symbol of the freedom of Africa and the world, as Fidel described the dear and dear friend Nelson Mandela, said the Caribbean President on Tuesday upon his arrival in South Africa as part of his tour of Africa, wrote the Cuban leader.

The Cuban president held a meeting in Pretoria with leaders of the tripartite alliance of the government, formed by the African National Congress, the Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, to whom he ratified his gratitude for their support to Cuba.

Díaz-Canel, together with the delegation accompanying him on his visit to South Africa, also honored the combatants who gave their lives for the liberation of Africa by placing a wreath in front of the wall he venerates in Freedom Park.

On the huge wall are the names of Cuban martyrs and those who although they did not die here contributed decisively to the liberation process.

After the tribute to the combatants who fought for independence in Africa, an emotional act of solidarity with Cuba took place in Freedom Park in which some 800 people participated, among them friends of the Revolution, collaborators and Cubans living here.

Representatives of the African National Congress (ANC), the trade union alliance Cosatu, the South African Communist Party (SACP), as well as the Cuba Friendship Society (Focus), among other groups, expressed their rejection of the U.S. blockade against Cuba, as well as the inclusion of the island by Washington in the list of countries that allegedly collaborate with terrorism.

In his words before the nearly one thousand people gathered at the solidarity event, Díaz-Canel urged that "in the name of the fallen for freedom and sovereignty of Africa, South Africa and Cuba, for peace and harmony among nations and human beings, let us fight for friendship to become indestructible and for future generations of South Africans and Cubans to be proud of the bonds we bequeathed them". (Source: Twitter Presidency/PL)