Jacob Zuma: Why does Britain still look down on South Africa?

South Africa's polygamous president Jacob Zuma today accused Britons of "looking down" on his country as he arrived here to meet the Queen.

Mr Zuma, 67, who is being accompanied on a three-day state visit by the latest of his three current wives, said in a newspaper interview he did not know why some British people thought their culture was "superior" to others.

He insisted that "no one has the authority to judge others" and that those Britons who continued to regard his country as inferior were guilty of adopting the same approach as those who had colonised South Africa during the 19th century.

Mr Zuma will meet the Queen, Prince Philip and Gordon Brown. A Zulu, he has married five times, fathered 20 children, has been acquitted of rape and accused of corruption.

Today he said attacks on him were being made by those with old-fashioned, imperialist views. "When the British came to our country they said everything we did was barbaric, was wrong, inferior in whatever way," Mr Zuma said. "They continue to do this, and it's an unfortunate thing."

The president may be further angered after the Commons erupted in laughter today during exchanges over his polygamy.

Britain risked a diplomatic row after Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat deputy leader standing in for Nick Clegg, extended a "very warm welcome" to Mr Zuma but sparked outbursts of laughter by asking Labour's Harriet Harman about his polygamy.

"As government spokesperson for gender equality, she might wish to enter into a debate with him on his strong advocacy of polygamy, particularly the role that married tax allowances might play in promoting the idea," he said.

Ms Harman said she didn't "support the married man's tax allowance".