President Cyril Ramaphosa has accepted an invitation by the British Royal family to the Buckingham Palace next month.
The visit was planned before the death of Queen Elizabeth the second.
Britain is South Africa’s fourth biggest export market.
Minister of International Relations and Corporation, Naledi Pandor says this is an honour.
“We feel very honoured and privileged that King Charles the third has maintained the diary the Queen had set in place. She had invited Cyril Ramaphosa to pay a state visit in November. And while we were at the funeral we were informed that there is an intention to ensure that the state visit happens. The announcement today from Buckingham Palace has confirmed this.”
Previewing President Ramaphosa’s upcoming UK state visit with Laura Makin-Isherwood:
Queen Elizabeth the Second first came to South Africa with her parents and sister as a 21 -year-old princess in 1947.
And her maiden return as Queen was in 1995, just after South Africa attained democracy.
The late Queen used her role as Head of the Commonwealth of Nations to allow South Africa to rejoin that group of nations after President Nelson Mandela was elected in 1994.
Looking back at Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Cape Town:
Amid formality and careful choreography, there were moments of raw emotion. Late in the day an ashen-faced King Charles held back tears, while grief was etched on the faces of several members of the royal family.
“Few leaders receive the outpouring of love that we have seen,” Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, told the congregation at the state funeral in the majestic Westminster Abbey, where monarchs have been married, buried and crowned over the last 1,000 years.
Among the 2,000 congregations were some 500 presidents, prime ministers, foreign royal family members and dignitaries, including Joe Biden of the United States.
