People power: Contributions have funded two solar energy installations
in Cuba. Photo: Supplied
A new Southern African-led solidarity platform is mobilising humanitarian support for Cuba as the Caribbean nation grapples with one of the worst economic crises in its recent history.
Cuba Solidarity Now (CSN), launched in South Africa in February, has rapidly expanded into a growing international network focused on delivering practical assistance, including medical supplies, food support and solar energy infrastructure, to communities in Cuba.
The initiative emerged amid worsening conditions on the island after renewed economic pressure from the US under Donald Trump. An executive order issued in January intensified restrictions affecting Cuba’s access to oil and international trade, compounding an economic crisis marked by widespread power outages, fuel shortages, food and medicine scarcity, inflation and crumbling infrastructure.
“There are many platforms where activists engage about the political issues at play but what is refreshing about this group is the focus on the key task at hand, which is providing practical and material support,” said ANC MP Cameron Dugmore.
The platform includes about 800 participants from South Africa, Namibia and other countries, ranging from civil society activists to solidarity organisations.
“There are cabinet ministers and former cabinet ministers in the group; two former South African ambassadors to Cuba are also in the group,” said labour law specialist and conflict mediator professor Brian Williams, who spearheads the initiative.
Williams said CSN was intentionally structured to avoid the ideological divisions that often weakened solidarity campaigns. “Cuba needs practical solidarity at this point — medicine, food, energy solutions and humanitarian support,” he said.
Contributions have funded two solar energy installations in Cuba — one at a care centre for the elderly and another at a rural medical clinic.
The initiative operates through a legally registered non-profit special purpose vehicle, with funds managed through an independent law firm and accountants. “It is a very tight ship we are running,” the chief executive of the Castle of Good Hope and a CSN participant, Calvyn Gilfellan, said.
For many involved in the campaign, the solidarity effort is rooted in Southern Africa’s liberation history. Since the 1960s, Cuba has provided military, medical and technical support to many African countries, including assistance to liberation struggles and post-independence development programmes.Thousands of students have also received scholarships to study in Cuba.
Engineer Clever Banganayi, the national secretary of the South African Friends of Cuba Society and a CSN participant, was among about 3 000 Southern African students who studied in Cuba through the Fidel Castro Solidarity Education Programme. In the 1990s, students from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique and Namibia were trained as engineers, doctors, dentists and teachers.
“Those who were offered an education came from poor backgrounds,” Banganayi said. “It had a life-changing impact on most of us.”
Namibian media and communications professional Norah Appolus, another CSN administrator, said her support for Cuba was shaped by her family’s exile history. Her Namibian father and South African mother were involved in Swapo. The family moved across several African countries during years in exile.
“Cuba and the Russians shared trenches with our fighters and sacrificed their lives for our cause,” Appolus said.
“Having been brought up by freedom fighters, it was a natural progression for me to assist … those who supported us in our hour of need. We owe a huge moral debt to Cuba.”
Dugmore recalled visiting Cuba while serving as Western Cape MEC for education, where he saw memorials dedicated to Cubans killed during the Angolan war.
“Seeing that made it practical and concrete to me that Cuba was celebrating the role its soldiers and medical personnel and others had played in supporting our struggle,” he said.
“There are plenty of other groups for debating Marxist-Leninism, post-colonialism and decolonialism,” said Gilfellan. “All the theoretical debates will not provide immediate relief.”
For more information, contact Calvyn Gilfellan at [email protected]