THE President, Mrs Robinson, arrives in Johannesburg this morning for a five day official visit to South Africa.
This is her second visit to South Africa - the first was in May 1994, when she attended the inauguration of President Nelson Mandela. The official programme, which begins when the President flies on to Cape Town tomorrow, will include a meeting with Mr Mandela and an address to the South African parliament.
The President's party includes the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Jim Higgins, and her husband Mr Nick Robinson.
Mrs Robinson will be met at the airport in Johannesburg by her former teacher at Trinity College, Dublin, Prof Kader Asmal, who is now South Africa's minister for water affairs and forestry. Also present will be Ireland's Ambassador to South Africa, Mr Eamon O Tuathail.
The group will drive to the official presidential guest house in Pretoria where they will have an opportunity to rest after their overnight flight from London. The rest of the day will be taken up with private engagements. These include a lunchtime briefing from Father Sean O'Leary, an Irish priest who heads the justice and peace commission of the South African Council of Bishops, and an afternoon visit from leading members of South African women's groups.
Tomorrow morning, Mrs Robinson is to be flown by the South African Air Force to Cape Town, where she will be met at the airport by Mr Mandela and receive a 21 gun salute. Later in the morning she will meet the Vice President and leader of the National Party, Mr F. W. de Klerk, and the Minister for Home Affairs and leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi. In the afternoon, she will address a joint sitting of the South African parliament.
Her engagements on Wednesday include a meeting with Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Cape Town offices of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a trip to Robben Island, where Mr Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years.
On Thursday, the president's party leaves for Johannesburg, where Mrs Robinson will meet members of the recently formed Constitutional Court and tour the black township of Soweto.
On Friday she flies to Bloemfontein to meet members of the South African appeal court and to visit the University of the Orange Free State. She departs for Ireland on Friday evening.