President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was today given a standing ovation by political leaders and thousands of onlookers at a party to mark ten years of post-apartheid rule in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela and President Thabo Mbeki rose to their feet and led the applause as the Zimbabwean leader and his wife Grace arrived at the ceremony in Pretoria's Union Buildings.

Mr Mugabe, 80, raised his hand in a clenched fist salute and smiled as he acknowledged the cheers of the crowd.

Mr Mugabe is regarded as a pariah leader in Europe, as his policy of forcibly seizing white farms and redistributing the land amongst his supporters has led to widescale famine in Zimbabwe. In Africa, however, he is regarded as a champion who has stood up to the former colonial overlords.

He was among 40 heads of state invited for the ceremony. Other guests included the leaders of Uganda, Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. FW de Klerk, the last white president of South Africa, was also present.

The day of celebrations also mark Mr Mbeki's inauguration for a second term as President, after the ruling African National Congress won a landslide victory in elections on April 14.

Mr Mbeki promised to continue working to transform South Africa into a peaceful, democratic, non-racist, non-sexist and prosperous country for all its peoples.

He vowed that he would not betray the trust of the majority black electorate.

"Today we begin our second decade of democracy," Mr Mbeki told the estimated 40,000 people who had come to witness the swearing-in ceremony.

"We are convinced that what has been achieved during the first demonstrates that as Africans we can and will overcome our problems," he added to rapturous applause from the crowd.

"Having served as the prime example of human despair, Africa is now certain to emerge as a place of human hope," Mr Mbeki said. "For too long our country contained within it much that is ugly and repulsive in human society," he added.

A 21-gun salute, a fly-past by fighter jets painted in the colours of the national flag, a demonstration of aerial acrobatics by Lieutenant Gabriel Ndabadaba, South Africa’s first black Silver Falcon pilot, and a march-past by the National Defence Forces completed the multi-million pound inauguration ceremony.

Mr Mbeki, who will name his new Cabinet tomorrow, is expected to make some of the most sweeping changes witnessed in government since the advent of black majority rule in a effort to deliver on his promise to improve the lives of millions of black people still trapped in a web of poverty and despair.

April 27 is known as Freedom Day, symbolising the end of white minority rule, and the start of multi-racial democracy.

Despite creating a stable democracy sustained by modest economic growth, South Africa is faced with a series of huge challenges, including tackling the HIV-Aids epidemic which infects one out of every nine South Africans, reducing the 40 per cent level of unemployment and alarmingly high levels of violent crime.