King Charles to host Ramaphosa

London – King Charles III will next week host his first state visit as monarch, welcoming President Cyril Ramaphosa and his wife to Buckingham Palace.

The last state visit to the UK came in June 2019, when Queen Elizabeth II hosted US president Donald Trump.

Charles has yet to announce where he will go on his first overseas visit as king, and this was the first invitation he extended since succeeding his mother in September.

The pomp of the major diplomatic event will be clouded by events in SA, where Ramaphosa risks impeachment for allegedly covering up an alleged crime.

Christopher Vandome, a senior research fellow at the Chatham House international affairs institute in London, said “setting the right tone will be crucial”.

He said London – a former colonial power in SA – needed to avoid lecturing about Pretoria’s United Nations voting record on Ukraine while South Africans are still sore about lack of Western support during the Covid crisis.

Climate change, trade and Charles’s vision for the Commonwealth will also likely be high on the agenda, Vandome said.

Ramaphosa was last in London for the state funeral of the queen in September.

His state visit comes more than a decade after the last by an SA leader, when Jacob Zuma went to the UK in 2010.

Ramaphosa arrives today before an official programme starts tomorrow, including a state banquet at Buckingham Palace.

Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will be in charge of welcoming Ramaphosa and First Lady Dr Tshepo Motsepe but will also see the visiting couple meet other senior royals.

Heir to the throne Prince William and his wife Kate, Princess of Wales, will take him to join Charles and Camilla for a ceremonial military welcome.

Charles’s youngest brother Prince Edward has also been recruited to accompany Ramaphosa to London’s Kew Gardens and a biomedical research centre.

Also on the agenda is an address to lawmakers from both houses of parliament and a meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Downing Street.

In a symbolic moment, Ramaphosa will tomorrow view a memorial stone for Nelson Mandela, installed in Westminster Abbey in 2018 on the centenary of his birth.

Given the problems at home, some South Africans have berated Ramaphosa for jetting off to the UK.

Charles has visited South Africa on a number of occasions and attended Mandela’s funeral in 2013.

It was from SA that his mother pledged her life to the service of the Commonwealth in a speech as a 21-year-old princess. –