a film by Jack Lewis
Brothers in Arms is 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 Herboldt, the only African to participate in the Cuban revolution, his love of his adopted country, his Cuban family and his determination to come home.
In December 1958 Ronald, then a twenty one year old from Salt River, Cape Town was working on the cargo ship Constantia which docked in Cuba to load sugar just as the Cuban Revolution was reaching its climactic moment. Fraternising with members of Fidel Castro’s Rebel Army, Ronald was instantly attracted to the rebel’s cause. He left the Constantia and participated in the liberation of Cuba from the Batista dictatorship. After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the missile crisis, Ronald was effectively left in exile. In 1962 he married Martha Rangel Sandoval and raised a family in Cuba. Throughout his long exile Ronald 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 the South African invasion. Ronald was amongst the first to volunteer for duty in Angola. His knowledge of Afrikaans provided invaluable assistance to Cuban military intelligence. South Africa’s retreat at Cuito Cuanavale marked the defeat of the ‘securocrats’, leading to the fall of PW Botha, independence for Namibia, the rise of FW de Klerk and the collapse of apartheid. Ronald 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 ten years later in 1998, Ronald was reunited with his South African family.
Brothers in Arms follows Ronald’s reunion with his family and tells the story of his life in Cuba, service in Angola and the meaning of these events. Now a proud and independent man of 70, who has accumulated nothing from his life of service, Ronald felt it wrong to be dependent on his Cape Town family. Unable to obtain a pension, he returned to Cuba in 2002. From there, he applied for the special pension which the South African government provides to struggle veterans who sacrificed normal life and career in service to the liberation of South Africa. His wish was to complete his homecoming by bringing his Cuban family to South Africa and to be able to support them here. The special pension is only available to people who were part of the recognised liberation movements, MK and FAPLA. The special pensions board is faced with a difficult decision – is Ronald’s service in the Cuban army in Angola equivalent to service in a liberation movement? Brothers in Arms takes us on a journey with Ronald to Angola to establish what took place there and explores these event’s vital contribution to a free and democratic South Africa.
Brothers in Arms is a story of an ordinary man whose sense of justice and decency led to his making his own unique contribution to the liberation of South Africa.
Director :Jack Lewis
Producer : Lucilla Blankenberg