- Title: SOUTH AFRICA : THE QUEEN FLIES OUT AFTER A SIX-DAY VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA
- Date: 25th March 1995
- Summary: DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA (MARCH 25, 1995) 1. SV ZULU DANCERS PERFORMING 0.16 2. SCU MANDELA SAYING I THINK IT WILL BE ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN ENTRENCHING DEMOCRACY IN THIS COUNTRY (ENGLISH) 0.28 3. SV BRITAIN'S QUEEN ELIZABETH WITH MANDELA, APPLAUDING DANCERS 0.39 4. SV BULL THAT WAS GIVEN TO QUEEN AS A GIFT 0.42 5. SV THE QUEEN WAVES 0.46 6. SV QUEEN LEAVING FOR AIRPORT (3 SHOTS) 1.04 7. SV QUEEN WITH MANDELA AND OTHER OFFICIALS AT AIRPORT 1.28 8. SV MILITARY BAND PLAYING BRITISH NATIONAL ANTHEM 1.40 9. SV QUEEN GETTING ONTO PLANE 2.08 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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- Location: DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA
- Country: South Africa
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- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text:Britain's Queen Elizabeth flew out of Durban airport for home on Saturday night (March 25) after a six-day state visit to South Africa that she described as one of the outstanding experiences of her life. President Nelson Mandela saw the queen and her husband Prince Philip off after a tour that set the seal on South Africa's post-apartheid ties with Britain and the Commonwealth and was described by both sides as highly successful. The queen told KwaZulu-Natal premier Frank Mdlalose at a lunch he hosted on Saturday: "You have rounded off quite splendidly what has been one of the outstanding experiences of my life." Mandela on Wednesday (March 22) described the visit as one of the most unforgettable moments in South African history. The queen last toured South Africa as a young princess in 1947 with her parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and sister Princess Margaret. She returned following the end of apartheid and white minority rule as British head of state, and as head of the Commonwealth, the 51-nation group of former British imperial possessions Pretoria quit in 1961 under international pressure. South Africa rejoined last year, and the queen celebrated the event by hosting a gala dinner in Pretoria on Thursday for Commonwealth diplomats and representatives of Commonwealth organisations in the country. The visit also served to emphasise British commercial ties with South Africa, where Britain has investments of 10 billion sterling (16 billion U.S. dollars)) and one billion sterling (1.6 billion U.S. dollars) in annual export trade. Mandela himself was unusually involved in the state visit, attending functions with the queen on five of the six days. He was absent only on Wednesday, when the queen visited Port Elizabeth in Eastern Cape province to a tumultuous welcome by more than 100,000 people. British officials compared her reception there to her 1977 Jubilee year and to her 1983 tour of India. She wound up the visit by attending "A night to remember" with song and dance performances in Durban's Playhouse theatre by various ethnic groups. The provincial premier presented her with an indigenous pedigree Nguni bull, named Zulu, on behalf of the province as young Zulu dancers performed in front of Durban City Hall and escorted her to her car. The queen gave the bull for safekeeping to a breeding station at the University of Zululand, where Mdlalose said it would "breed more strong, tough, fertile, virile calves". At the Saturday lunch, the queen said she had been saddened by violence that has racked South Africa and hoped peace would prevail in the common interest. But she said she had been struck by the determination of people to make the new South Africa succeed. "We shall take back, in a new form, an old message -- faith can move mountains, faith can recreate a nation," she said. The queen started her tour last Monday in Cape Town, and continued on to Port Elizabeth and the Pretoria-Johannesburg area before flying to Durban.
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