Speaking during a send-off ceremony held in Pretoria on Monday, Tshwete said South Africa was profoundly grateful for the services of the Cuban engineers in the country.
“What you’ve done for our country is not different from what you did in Angola (where the Cubans had defeated a US-backed South African apartheid army). You were always there for us in our hour of need,” Tshwete said.
Speaking on behalf of the departing Cubans, Eduardo Loriga said the group was leaving South Africa with a heavy heart.
“It feels like we are South Africans now. South Africa has become our second home. We will continue to retain our relations with this country and its beautiful people,” Loriga said.
The engineers, including technicians and water scientists, arrived in South Africa in 2015 as part of an agreement to help with their technical expertise in South Africa’s water sector.
The group was part of the 35 engineers deployed in various clusters of the Ministry of Water and Sanitation throughout the country. Twenty of them returned to Cuba when their contract expired in June 2018.