On Pomp-Filled Visit, Queen Elizabeth Hails Spirit of S. Africa
Queen Elizabeth II, making the first address by a British monarch to a South African Parliament since 1947, paid tribute Monday to the post-apartheid nation as a force for regional stability and growth.
Welcoming South Africa’s return to the Commonwealth last June after the end of apartheid, she said, “You have become one nation whose spirit of reconciliation is a shining example to the world, and I have come back to see for myself what is little short of a miracle.”
The queen last visited South Africa 48 years ago with her mother, Queen Elizabeth, and sister, Princess Margaret, when her father, King George VI, opened Parliament.
During the anti-apartheid struggle, which sometimes threatened to break the 51-nation Commonwealth apart, British officials said the queen supported moves to end legal racial discrimination.
Monday was a day of pomp and ceremony, starting with the arrival of the royal yacht Britannia to a 21-gun salute in Cape Town harbor and a formal welcome from President Nelson Mandela.
At a state banquet, Mandela welcomed her as British head of state, head of the Commonwealth and “an avowed friend of our country.”
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