Cape Town - Parliament will open in traditional splendour on Wednesday for President Jacob Zuma's maiden State of the Nation Address during a joint sitting of both houses.
Members of both the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces, Cabinet members, former ministers, political parties, diplomats and other invited guests will all witness the President outlining government's programme of action.
Former Presidents, former Deputy Presidents and the former Chief Justice have been invited to the event.
Weather-allowing, guests will begin arriving from 8am dressed in their high-fashion outfits. Sporting new trends on the red carpet by attending dignitaries has become one of the highlights of the day.
The Air Force Band will entertain the crowds as members of the public begin to line the streets in anticipation of the President, who will make his way to Parliament with a mounted police escort and a military ceremonial motor escort.
From Slave Lodge, just outside the Parliamentary precinct, a Civil Guard of Honour, drawn from civil society development organisations, and a Junior Guard of Honour, drawn from schools in all the nine provinces will welcome Mr Zuma.
From the end of the Old Assembly Wing, the procession becomes part of a formal, state ceremony where the Ceremonial Military Guard of Honour will begin. The Air Force Band will play the national anthem.
A National Salute by South African National Defence Force members will signal the arrival of Mr Zuma at the stairs of the National Assembly. There will also be a fly-past by the South African Air Force and a 21-gun salute.
The 21-gun salute is the international norm for the highest honour a nation renders and is held in honour of the Head of State, a visit from the Head of State of a foreign nation, a member of a reigning royal family and a former Head of State.
President Zuma will be received by an imbongi (meaning poet) and Parliament's Presiding Officers will accompany him up the red carpet to where he will take his place in the House to address the Legislature, the Executive and the Judicial arms of the state.
His address is expected to outline how the government aims to meet the challenges affecting the country including crime, the widening inequality gap, blockages in the criminal justice system, unemployment and poverty, quality of education as well as the affect of the global economic crisis on South Africa.
