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Shortly after arriving in South Africa Wednesday, Sweden’s Princess Madeleine went to a reception in honor of World Childhood Foundation at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cape Town.
 All Over Press/Svensk Damtidining Madeleine dressed beautifully as she always does for the dinner. She wore an olive gown with beige lace across the chest and on the tiny sleeves. To top it off, the Princess wore large gold earrings shaped like leaves.
She is expected to stay in South Africa until Friday before flying off to the United States for more work on behalf of WCF, which was started by her mother, Queen Silvia.
It is unknown how long the Princess will stay in the States. Her visit is not even mentioned in the royal calendar.
Many royal watchers believe Madeleine is getting more involved with WCF as a way to get past her break-up with former fiancé, Jonas Bergstrom.
Source: Svensk Damtidining
 Stella Pictures Sweden’s Princess Madeleine is going to be a busy lady in the coming weeks. Tomorrow, she will fly to South Africa for projects related to World Childhood Foundation, which her mother, Queen Silvia set up to give children worldwide better lives.
Among the functions the Princess will be doing is attending a dinner meant to honor WCF in Cape Town.
Madeleine will also be filmed by German TV station, RTL, which will be a follow-up to a previous project they did on her and WCF.
This will be the Princess’ second trip to South Africa. In November 2008, she spent some time in the country both promoting and doing work for the charity. Madeleine visited shantytowns, getting a chance to see up close the poverty some children live in and how her mother’s foundation can help them.
But before leaving Sweden, Madeleine took part in another charity on Sunday. In Skansen in Stockholm, she was present for the 10th anniversary of Min Stora Dag, or My Big Day – a charity that grants wishes terminally ill children.
Source: Svensk Damtidining
South African President Jacob Zuma announced that six of the thirteen kingdoms in his country will be no more. He said Thursday that those monarchies were created during apartheid in order for those kings and queens to support the white-led government.
 AFP/File/Rajesh Jantilal “The apartheid regime created its own traditional leadership at the expense of authentic leadership in some communities,” Zuma said.
“It was how those in charge divided and disunited people,” he said. “We urge all communities to accept the findings in the spirit of correcting the wrongs of the past, and as part of the country’s nation-building efforts.”
Those six kingdoms will end when their rulers die. They include: the central province of Free State’s Batlokwa ba Mota and the Bakwena baMopeli monarchies, the Eastern Cape’s AmaRharhabe and the Amampondo ase-Nyandeni, and the Ndzundza Mabhoko kingdom in the eastern Mpumalanga province. The kingdom of AbaThembu base-Rhode’s King already died, and so that monarchy will be ending shortly.
The Xhosa and Zulu Kingdoms will remain.
Source: AFP, AP
Jacob Zuma, the President of South Africa, was officially welcomed to the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II earlier today. Zuma is on a three day state visit to the country, and was welcomed with pomp and circumstance.
 REUTERS/Chris Jackson/pool The Queen greeted the President at Horse Guards Parade before a carriage procession to Buckingham Palace. There, Zuma shook hands with Prince Philip and Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Brown will meet separately with the President later on.
At Buckingham, President Zuma presented Queen Elizabeth with a chess set. Problem was, when Her Majesty gave Zuma a tour of the Palace’s collection of South African gifts, he learned that the Queen already had a chess set, given to her by Nelson Mandela in 1995.
There will be a state banquet tonight in honor of the President, at Buckingham Palace where he is also staying overnight. He will also go to Clarence House to visit Prince Charles.
Monaco’s Princess Stephanie spent the past three days in South Africa on behalf of UNAIDS and Fight AIDS Monaco. She arrived on Wednesday and got down to business on the following day.
 N. Saussier/FAM/PodcastJournal.net Stephanie first had a meeting with NGO officials before moving on to the Research Unit on Reproductive Health at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. The center follows the latest medical breakthroughs on the virus and gives free treatment to those who are HIV positive.
That afternoon, the Princess went to Alexandra township to visit an NGO “Friends for Life” which helps vulnerable and orphaned children as a result of the pandemic. The NGO cares for hundreds of local children a day.
On Friday, Princess Stephanie moved on to Soweto to check out another NGO, “PUSH” (Persevere Until Something Happens). This one also helps children orphaned by AIDS, as well as providing tests for HIV, STIs and TB. It also gives psychological help and ARV treatment.
Later on, the Princess met with Graca Michel, the wife of Nelson Mandela. It does not appear that she met with Mandela himself.
At the end of her visit, Stephanie met with Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS and reported to him about her visit.
Stephanie has been a UN Goodwill Ambassador for UNAIDS since 2006.
South Africa has one of the highest HIV populations in the world. Out of 49 million people, 5.2 million are infected. The new government under President Jacob Zuma is dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS by providing the largest distribution of ARV treatment and millions of condoms.
Norway’s King Harald V and Queen Sonja arrived in Pretoria, South Africa on Tuesday to begin a two day state visit to the country. With them are over 100 Norwegian business leaders, looking for opportunity investments.
 REUTERS/Ziphozonke Lushaba Harald and Sonja were welcomed by President Jacob Zuma and his wife at the Union Buildings. They eventually went to the University of Pretoria, where King Harald opened a seminar on foreign policy.
Afterward, the King and Queen visited Freedom Park. This evening, they will attend a state dinner hosted by President Zuma.
Already a lot has been accomplished at this state visit. Co-operation agreements on partnerships, in higher education and research, plus mutual trade and investments have been signed. Also, efforts to tackle climate change have been agreed upon.
However, one thing would be noticably absent from this royal visit. King Harald and Queen Sonja will not be meeting with South African hero Nelson Mandela. He has chosen not meet the royal couple since he has resigned from public life and is struggling with fragile health.
As patron of the Walter Sisulu Pediatric Cardiac Centre for Africa (WSPCCA), Dubai’s Princess Haya was in Johannesburg to open a house at a children’s hospital for those undergoing cardiac treatment. The name of the house is Sheikha Al Jalila, after Haya’s little daughter with her husband, the Sheikh of Dubai.
 The Sowetan “We needed a place that not only had the space and facilities for parents to stay, but also a place for children to recover after their discharge before going home. We could not be more blessed,” said Lynda Bleazard, the CEO of the WSPCCA.
The house can hold about 14 people – seven children and their mothers. They will arrive two days before their surgery, and leave about a week later.
Already, the Sheikha Al Jalila House is taking care of three children: Ollarato age 5, Nkgokena who is 1, and baby Angel, who is only two weeks old. Angel was found in a garbage can, and will be given heart surgery once she gains more weight.
The house is supported by private donors.
“It is the hope of all the donors that this will be a special place of rest and relaxation for the parents of patients at the centre,” Princess Haya said.
“We hope it will provide them with a temporary sanctuary at a very difficult time in their lives and a home away from home.”
King Mswati III of Swaziland received loud cheers and applause during his arrival to Saturday’s inauguration of South Africa’s new president, Jacob Zuma.
 - File
The overwhelming support for Africa’s last absolute monarch came when it was rumored he was not welcomed to the ceremony.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions had backed the Swaziland Solidarity Network to ban the King.
On Friday, The Congress released a statement explaining why they did not want Mswati to come.
“The Presidential inauguration will be a celebration of democracy” the Congress said. “The culmination of a long process in which first the rank-and-file of the African National Congress and then the people of South Africa have democratically selected a president and government of their choice.
“King Mswati on the other hand has been elected by nobody. He inherited his position of absolute power and has used it to deny his people any democratic rights…Opposition parties remain banned, trade union rights are curtailed and any opposition demonstrations are ruthlessly suppressed.
“The presence of this despot at the inauguration will be an insult to all the people of Africa. It will give him credibility and democratic credentials which he does not deserve… He should be treated as a pariah.”
The spokesperson for the Swaziland Solidarity Network, Lucky Lukhele, said:
“He has never spent R100million on his personal birthday and another R50million on 20 luxury Mercedes Benz S600 with plasma screens and fridges inside, while his own people go hungry.”
Despite all the efforts, the King did show up and was greeted warmly.
King Mswati is without controversy. He and his 13 wives and many children, live lavishly while the majority of Swazis live in intense poverty. Swaziland’s HIV rate is one of the world’s highest.
Jordan’s Queen Rania is in South Africa, promoting education as an UNICEF ambassador. She went to the country’s infamous Soweto township, and to its Phefeni Secondary School. 
Upon the Queen’s arrival at the school, a lively celebration was held in her honor, who joined local women and children eager to demonstrate a few steps of their wonderfully empowering dance.
In her role as UNICEF’s Eminent Advocate for Children, Rania then met with UN representatives and school teachers who explained how ambitious educational programs promote girls’ empowerment by tackling three inter-related threats to girls’ education: gender inequality, and violence in schools.
Over the course of her South African visit, Rania also met with anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel.
Queen Rania has been an outspoken advocate of women’s and children’s rights. As honorary chair of the Global Action Week on Education she led a Big Read on Friday for children at a library in Johannesburg.
South Africa’s education system is still struggling to overcome inequalities entrenched during apartheid.
An international reading literacy study in 2007 placed South African schoolchildren aged 11-12 last out of 40 countries when it came to basic reading skills.
Princess Madeleine of Sweden is known for her good looks and sense of style. But she is also known for having a big heart for disadvantaged children, and these days she is helping those in South Africa for the charity, World Childhood Foundation. 
Founded by her mother, Queen Silvia, in 1983, the charity aims at helping abused, neglected and impoverished children. It also aims at helping their mothers provide for their children.
The Princess met with South Africans living in poverty in Cape Town slums. She saw how they live, and learned about their lives. The Princess also helped them build fires and fetch water.
Princess Madeleine did all this to help start a WCF station in South Africa. This, so more sustainable assistance for children there can be offered.
 South Africa is a difficult place for women and children. Every 26 seconds, a female is raped, no matter how young or how old. Many children grow up without a father. Families are torn apart by alcoholism and unemployment. Often, children run away from home to live on the streets. HIV rates are high in this country, with few being able to afford the treatments to slow the disease.
Princess Madeleine has done many works with children. She is the patron of Sweden’s “Min Stora Dag”, or “My Big Day”. It helps grant wishes of terminally ill children.
Last month, the Princess stopped by a hospital in Sweden to meet with sick children. In 2006, she interned at the United Nations.
To learn more about World Childhood Foundation, click here
To see a German video of Princess Madeleine in South Africa, click here
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