Caxito – The head of South Africa’s National Defence forces Rudzani Maphwanya reiterated Thursday the strengthening of diplomatic-military cooperation with Angola, aimed at consolidating bilateral relations between the two countries.
Speaking at a meeting with the governor of the northern Bengo province, Mara Quiosa and members of the local government, General Rudzani Maphwanya defended bilateral cooperation aimed at exchanging experiences.
He recalled, on the occasion, that the localities of Caxito (Dande), Kibaxe (Dembos) and Pango Aluquém, in the province of Bengo, were regions that hosted the bases of the troops of the African National Congress (ANC).
The bases of the ANC troops were established in Angola, with the permission of the Angolan State, in the second half of the 1970s, in the context of the fight against the Apartheid regime then reigning in South Africa.
Rudzani Maphwanya said that in the current context there are several enemies that must be fought collectively, including poverty, natural disasters and poor health.
In turn, Governor Mara Quiosa said that the South African delegation can count on the institutional support of the Provincial Government of Bengo, to recover the historic sites where the ANC bases were previously installed.
In Bengo, accompanied by the Chief of Staff of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA), Egídio de Sousa, the South African delegation visited the village of Kibaxe, in Dembos, where South African soldiers are buried.
The South African military delegation, which has been in Angola from the 22nd to the 28th of this month, intends to build, in the future, a historical monument in memory of the ANC fighters who participated in the fight against the Apartheid regime, in Dembos region.
Source: Angola Press News Agency