Go well icon of revolutionaries!

To express our deep condolences to them, and assure them that their feeling of deep loss is shared by us in Zimbabwe, and I happen to know by also a great many communities and leaders in Africa.Fidel was not just your leader, he was our leader and the leader of all revolutionaries. We followed him, listened to him and tried to emulate him.

I used to come several times here and met with him and shared with him our situation in Africa, our struggle in Africa, and there was in him the spirit of a man who identified himself with our struggles.

He was not just a man of words, he was a man of action. And in my country after he visited us during the Non Aligned Movement Summit of 1986 and discussed with me how Cuba could assist, he agreed to establish on the island a university to train our young men and women in science and mathematics. Overtime he trained over 3 000 young teachers of science and mathematics who have done a lot of good work in Zimbabwe.

And besides that he decided to start a programme on a completely unexpected basis taking into account that Cuba was suffering from sanctions imposed on it by the United States and its allies, a programme of training doctors for countries, Latin American countries, South African, if not African communities; to train doctors for us.

We have those doctors in our hospitals to this day, the medical personnel. We have them now as I speak. And this was being done by a Cuba that was in difficulties economically because of the sanctions imposed unfairly on it by America.

And we want to thank the people of Cuba for their spirit of endurance, bearing this suffering from sanctions. It is that spirit that has identified the people of Cuba with the people of Africa and has made us one in our struggle.

So in short I can just say, taking all that he has done, Fidel Castro, and all that Cuba has done under his leadership, your loss is our loss and we could not just stay away and keep away now that he is gone. We could not just keep away without coming to say farewell dear brother, farewell revolutionary.

We shall always remember you as our own in the same way as Cubans will do so and that is the spirit that brings me and my delegation here, just to be with you, to share a tear with you and assure you that our hearts are with you also.

But also our hearts are full of courage, and his life that he has bequeathed us, a lot of revolutionary goodness.

There is the revolutionary road that he has charted, and there is the road for all of us revolutionaries, anti-imperialists, anti-colonialists to follow as we sing, “Long live Fidel Castro!”