South African President Ramaphosa to Pay Visit to UK King Charles III

The South African president was greeted by the late Queen Elizabeth II during his visit to Windsor Castle in 2018. The late Queen gave him two letters that former South African president and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela had written to her as a mark of the nation's re-entry to the Commonwealth in 1994.

King Charles III is expected to host South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and his wife in Buckingham Palace in late November, according to the palace's statement on Monday.

This event will be the first state visit for the UK's new king.

"The President of the Republic of South Africa [...] has accepted an invitation from his majesty the king to pay a state visit to the United Kingdom from Tuesday 22nd November to Thursday 24th November 2022," the statement said.

Besides the King, Queen Consort Camilla is also expected to greet Ramaphosa and South Africa's first lady Tshepo Motsepe.

According to Sky News, the African leader’s visit had been planned before Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8.

In accordance with protocol, all the decisions on who should be welcomed in the palace are made by the Foreign Office and are viewed as an "ultimate diplomatic gift" to the countries considered to be strategically important to the UK from the standpoint of trade and security cooperation.

Ramaphosa has visited the UK several times. The most recent visit came on September 17-19, when the president attended events related to the Queen's state funeral in London. In June last year, he participated in the G7 Leaders' Summit in Cornwall.

In October 2019, Ramaphosa visited the UK to take part in the Financial Times Africa Summit, an annual event organized by the newspaper of the same name, aiming to discuss current business affairs in African countries. In 2018, the South African president attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Four out of five South African presidents, including Ramaphosa, have visited the UK in an official capacity. Nelson Mandela paid a visit in 1996, Thabo Mbeki in 2001, and Jacob Zuma in 2010. The country’s third president Kgalema Motlanthe also visited the United Kingdom in 2014, however, at the time he held the post of deputy president.

For his part, Charles III had been to South Africa several times before taking the throne.

In February 1997 he, along with his youngest son Prince Harry, paid a visit to South Africa, where he met the first president of post-apartheid South Africa, activist Nelson Mandela. Then, he visited the nation in 2011 accompanied by his wife.

Charles’ last trip to South Africa was in 2013, when he attended Mandela’s funeral.

Charles III ascended to the throne in the wake of his mother’s death, who went down in history as the UK's longest-serving monarch.