after refusing direct talks with cuba, the us agreed to include a cuban delegation in the negotiations, who joined on january 28, 1988. the three parties held a round of negotiations on march 9 in london. the south african government joined negotiations in cairo on 3 may expecting un security resolution 435 to be modified. defence minister magnus malan and president p.w. botha asserted that south africa would withdraw from angola only "if russia and its proxies did the same." they did not mention withdrawing from namibia. on 16 march 1988, the south african "business day" reported that pretoria was "offering to withdraw into namibia – not from namibia – in return for the withdrawal of cuban forces from angola. the implication is that south africa has no real intention of giving up the territory any time soon." however the un plenary meeting of 1986 indicates that the south africans were linking namibian independence with cuban withdrawal. the cuban negotiator, jorge risquet, announced that cuba would stay in angola until the end of apartheid, probably also as a negotiation ploy. (apartheid did not end until more than 4 years after cuba left angola).