The South African president, Jacob Zuma, greets Queen Elizabeth II during a rite acquire on Horseguards Parade. Photograph: Chris Jackson/AFP/Getty Images
12.03pm: Alongside the resplendence and ceremony, there is a critical side to Jacob Zuma"s visit. He will be dire Gordon Brown tolift the transport bans and object freezes imposed by the EU and the US on Robert Mugabe and his allies. Zuma"s evidence is that it serves usually to order the already frail power-sharing supervision in Zimbabwe.
Gordon Brown has taken the surprising step of skipping budding minister"s subject time to be at Buckingham Palace when the Queen receives Zuma.
Here is a devious take from my co-worker Michael White on Zuma"s revisit to the palace.
The Queen watches as Prince Philip greets Jacob Zuma. Photograph: Chris Jackson/AP Will such a charming CV annoy her hosts, not slightest the 83-year-old and clearly monogamous sovereign with whom the Zumas will stay at Buckingham Palace? Given the range of clearly ropey state visitors she has greeted during her 58 years on the bench it seems unlikely. The Queen is prolonged past being repelled by the judicious dictates of unfamiliar process and blurb interests.
12.06pm: My co-worker Sam Jones who is at Horse Guards Parade says there was a last-minute tidying up as someone brushed the sand with a broom. Sky News is juxtaposing unruly scenes from PMQs with cinema from Horse Guards. The runner looks pinkish rather than red. It"s cold so the Coldstream Guards are wearing prolonged grey coats. The Mall is perfectly flashy from Admiralty Arch and Buckingham residence with the Union Jack and the South African flag. The Queen in purple cloak and hat only arrived and is jolt hands with people. It"s surreal examination the Queen whilst listening to Harriet Harman ring with William Hague simultaneously.
12.18pm: Vince Cable, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, gets a big giggle at PMQs by suggesting to Harman that she plead polygamy with Zuma and the purpose of family taxation stipend can play. Zuma"s revisit could be overshadowed by headlines of the genocide of Michael Foot, the former Labour leader. The last cinema Sky carried of the Queen showed her watchful - impatiently? - for Zuma. It is cold after all.
12.24pm: That crack from Cable will not go down well with Zuma"s entourage. His supporters have already cursed the "colonialist" tinge in a small of the media coverage in the UK. The African National Congress Youth League has voiced the disgust.
"It is utterly strong that the British media is one that is characterised and tangible by the misfortune form of barbarism, backwardness and racism," the orator said.
Jacob Zuma and his mother Thobeka Madiba Zuma arrive at London"s Heathrow airfield at the begin of his state visit. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images 12.29pm: While Sky News is concentrating on Foot"s death, Zuma"s revisit is removing live coverage in South Africa on eNews, emails my co-worker David Smith in Johannesburg.
The presenter says that Zuma"s rather oppressive comments currently competence not be the majority appropriate begin to the visit. "One can"t assistance sketch a together to Nelson Mandela"s state revisit to the UK in 1995. There was a outrageous nod for Nelson Mandela."
12.43pm: My colleague, Sam Jones, has only called in with sum from the scene, that is only as well as it"s wall-to-wall Michael Foot on the BBC and Sky. The Queen"s relating hat and cloak are strictly described as violet and the Guards were Grenadier not Coldstream as I formerly said. The Queen incited up at 12.15 on the nose. Zuma incited up at 12.22 in a Bentley with the Prince of Wales. The third Mrs Zuma, Thobeka Madiba, 38, followed in a Rolls-Royce with Camilla. Mrs Zuma was wearing a bullion skirt and bullion hat. Zuma wore a dim grey suit. He and Prince Philip, in tip hat, legalised the rite ensure at a sprightly pace. Zuma led, with the count dual paces behind. Then everybody went off the residence with a servant handing the Queen a black sweeping for the float - it"s bitterly cold, Sam says.
12.55pm: David Smith, my co-worker in Johannesburg, was interviewed on South African air wave about Zuma"s visit. He pronounced it was not the tip item. That was handover of the Soccer City track to Johannesburg for the World Cup. He says:
The antics of the British media are creation waves in South Africa today. The front page of The Star journal took a shade grab from the Daily Mail"s website: "Jacob Zuma is a sex-obsessed extremist with 4 wives and 35 children. So because is Britain flattering over this sinister buffoon?" The paper quoted multiform alternative writings and reported Zuma"s reply to the "UK onslaught". The British coverage was additionally the speak of air wave shows, but on radio the Zuma revisit to "Queen Elizabeth the Second" is receiving a behind chair to the countdown to the football World Cup in South Africa. The eNews channel said: "There are concerns that the British media will concentration on his in isolation life."
1.03pm: Before entrance here, Zuma told the Financial Times that the EU should lift the targeted sanctions opposite Zimbabwe. Zuma argues that the togetherness supervision "is being suffocated. It is not being authorised to do the pursuit by the big countries."
The Foreign Office, however, says "evidence of shift and joining to remodel on the belligerent will be the majority critical means conversion the on all sides on sanctions."
Before apropos president, Zuma had taken a tougher line on Zimbabwe than Thabo Mbeki, his predecessor, so his new on all sides is a slight u-turn. Despite reports in the pro-Robert Mugabe press that Morgan Tsvangirai favours a light of the sanctions, this is not the case. Tsvangirai still believes that the power-sharing agreement contingency be entirely implemented prior to sanctions can be lifted.
1.31pm: The ANC has put out a matter decrying British media coverage of Zuma"s visit, privately Stephen Robinson"s square in the Mail.
We find it abominable that the media, in particular, Stephen Robinson, would have such a astigmatic perspective and disregard for an central revisit of a head of state to their country.
2.26pm: A dash from the Press Association"s comment of the occasion.
The way along the Mall by the sovereign and the presidential integrate was a festive event as they were accompanied by a mounted Sovereign"s Escort supposing by the Household Cavalry"s Life Guards and Blues and Royals. The Queen rode in the expensively flashy Australian state manager with the boss whilst Mrs Zuma, who had been smiling via the ceremony, was assimilated by the Duke in the Scottish state coach.
2.30pm: While Zuma and the ANC have been bashing the British press, the South African media are additionally poking at him. The Cape Times has this travesty on what the Queen and Zuma won"t be articulate about.
QE: I"m so glad. It"s only a ritual here in court. Have you been to justice before, President... er, Jake?JZ: Yes, but as you know, I was clear of all charges.QE: Of course. I meant the justice of St James. Cultural differences means so most misunderstanding, though I"ve regularly been meddlesome in farrago inside of the Commonwealth.
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2.48pm: Watch ITN"s inform on Zuma"s visit, that includes vox cocktail with discontented immature South Africans who protest that Zuma has not delivered.
2.53pm: So what else is Zuma up to whilst he is here. A lot. Here are a small of the highlights. After today"s in isolation lunch with the Queen, he is off to Muswell Hill to revisit Oliver Tambo"s residence (Tambo was one of Mandela"s ANC companions) and this dusk there will be a state party at the palace. Tomorrow, he binds talks at No 10 with Gordon Brown and will revisit Lewisham locale gymnasium for a contention on Lewisham council"s proceed to issues inspiring immature people. On Friday he will hold talks with captains of industry at the palace.
3.01pm: All is not well at home, where a small commentators have described Zuma as a sore steep after less than a year in office. Richard Calland of the MailGuardian gave this downbeat comment recently.
There is small ardour for an additional cruel stop à la Mbeki or a full of blood period battle, neither, increasingly, is there a good understanding of unrestrained inside of the ANC for most some-more of Zuma, let alone a second term. Faced with a sore steep president, a small are already reaching the conclusion: Zuma should go - and go now.
3.12pm: The reputable thinktank, International Crisis Group, additionally thinks that targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe should be maintained.
The broader general community, generally the UK, US, EU and China, should await and element SADC"s (the informal group) efforts by clever calibration of trade, aid, and investment to inspire progress; upkeep of targeted sanctions on those thwarting the transition; and light of sanctions on entities key to mercantile recovery.
3.20pm: The South African Broadcasting Corporation"s Kgomotso Sebetso anticipates a "no-holds barred affair" at tomorrow"s press discussion at No 10.
3.38pm: That"s it for today"s coverage of Jacob Zuma"s state visit. Thanks for all your comments.
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