In an era of “firsts”, this would have been one of the more momentous for the new King.

“My wife and I are delighted to welcome you to Buckingham Palace,” he told the visiting South African president, as he took on the most significant of diplomatic duties from his mother in the first state visit of his reign.

In a glowing speech ahead of a Buckingham Palace banquet paying tribute to both the late Queen Elizabeth II and her friendship with Nelson Mandela, he called the evening “particularly moving and special” for celebrating a country which has "always been part of my life”.

Thanks to his mother’s famous pledge to dedicate her life to service on her 21st birthday in South Africa, he said, it gave her and now him “great pleasure” to host a succession of its presidents.

Addressing President Ramaphosa, who beamed at points throughout, the King told him: “During one of my own visits to South Africa, in 1997, President Mandela told me that he had conferred on my mother a special name – Motlalepula, meaning “to come with rain”.

Continue reading full article:https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/11/22/kings-first-state-visit-shows-leaders-see-different-light-late/

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