By Oyintari Ben
Next month, King Charles III will host South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa for three days of high-level negotiations in the United Kingdom. This will be the first official visit since the king replaced his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, last month.
Ramaphosa accepted Charles’ invitation for a state visit from November 22 to 24, according to a statement released by Buckingham Palace on Monday.
First Lady Tshepo Motsepe will accompany the President of South Africa.
The Commonwealth, a political alliance of 56 nations, the majority of which were once British colonies, includes South Africa.
The other presidents the nation has had since its first multiethnic elections in April 1994, including Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, and Jacob Zuma, have also made state visits to the UK in the past.
At the beginning of a state visit to the UK in 2010, Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, welcomed former South African President Jacob Zuma while still the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.
Since 1997, the new monarch has made multiple trips to South Africa. At Mandela’s funeral in 2013, he declared that without the man who oversaw South Africa’s transformation from apartheid to a multiethnic democracy, the world would be a “poorer place,” adding that Mandela was owed “an immense debt of appreciation” for his accomplishments.
The visit occurs as Ramaphosa deals with a major crisis at home. In reference to the alleged loss of $4 million in cash discovered at the president’s Phala Phala game ranch in northern South Africa, Arthur Fraser, the former head of the nation’s spy service, has accused the president of kidnapping, bribery, money laundering, and “concealing a crime.”
Ramaphosa may be subject to an impeachment vote in the coming weeks as a result of the country’s parliament having launched an investigation into the situation.
