South Africa is today celebrating 10 years of democracy since the end of apartheid and its first all-race elections with a presidential inauguration and parties round the world.
Mr Thabo Mbeki, whose African National Congress was re-elected for the third time in a landslide victory two weeks ago, is expected to be sworn in for his second term this morning.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth was among the first to congratulate Mr Mbeki, who succeeded Mr Nelson Mandela, icon of the anti-apartheid struggle, as president in 1999.
Mr Mbeki's inauguration fell on the anniversary of South Africa's first democratic elections, held on April 27th, 1994, which saw Mr Mandela elected as the country's first black president in polls that ended centuries of oppression by whites.
Many feared those polls would trigger the kind of bloody ethnic violence or autocratic rule that has dogged so many other countries on achieving independence, but the "Rainbow Nation" has largely defied the doomsayers.
Mr Mbeki's inauguration was expected to be a more low-key affair than that of Mr Mandela in 1994, which was attended by hundreds of dignitaries, thousands of ordinary South Africans and much of the world's media.
Most countries oustide Africa are sending low-level delegations this time, which some said reflected the confidence the international community now had in the country.
Officials say the party will nevertheless be the largest South Africa has staged since 1994, featuring a giant open-air concert, a military fly-by, and celebrations at South African missions round the world.