Description:

The fasinating story of Ronald Herboldt, an ordinary man whose sense of justice and decency led to his making his own unique contribution to Cuba and the liberation of Southern Africa. In December 1958, during the Cuban Revolution, Ronald was a twenty-one-year-old from Salt River, Cape Town working on a South African cargo ship, the Constantia, that had docked in Cuba to load sugar. When members of Fidel Castro’s Rebel Army boarded the ship to check for arms and witnessed the mistreatment of the non-whites on board, they encouraged Ronald to jump ship. He did so and joined the rebels fighting for the liberation of Cuba from the Batista dictatorship. After the events of the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban missile crisis, Ronald was effectively in exile from South Africa. He married and raised a family in Cuba, but throughout his exile he never lost his love for Cape Town and his South African family or his desire to return home to a liberated South Africa.

In 1975, and again in 1987, Angola asked for Cuban help to repulse apartheid South African invasions. Ronald was amongst the first to volunteer for duty in Angola, his knowledge of Afrikaans providing invaluable assistance to Cuban military intelligence. South Africa’s retreat at Cuito Cuanavale marked its defeat, leading to the fall of P.W. Botha, independence for Namibia, and the collapse of apartheid. Ronald later served as a Cuban representative in the Joint Military Monitoring Commission that oversaw South Africa and Cuba’s military disengagement from southern Angola.

Finally able to return home in 1998, Ronald was reunited with his South African family. His ultimate wish was to bring his Cuban family to South Africa and to be able to support them there. A proud and independent man of 70, he had no pension and had accumulated nothing from his life of service. Not wanting to be financially dependent on his Cape Town family, he returned to socialist Cuba in 2002. From Cuba, he applied for the special pension which the South African government provides to veterans of the struggle who sacrificed normal life and career in service to the liberation of South Africa and were part of recognized liberation movements. The special pensions board was faced with a difficult decision – was Ronald’s service in the Cuban army in Angola equivalent to service in a liberation movement?

A tale of two countries: South Africa and Cuba, and of a family separated by 40 years of exile. It tells the story of Ronald’s love of his adopted country, his Cuban family and his determination to come home. Brothers in Arms follows Ronald’s reunion with his family and tells the story of his life in Cuba and service in Angola.

Brothers in Arms takes us on a journey with Ronald to Angola to establish what took place there which contributed vitally to a free and democratic South Africa.

Ronald Herboldt finally made it home to South Africa and passed away a few months later. He died on the 31 August 2007 from a heart attack. His wife and family buried him on the 14th of September 2007.