East of the High Commission is 7 Rideau Gate, Canada's official guest house for visiting dignitaries.

[citation needed] In 1867, it was purchased by Moss Kent Dickinson an industrialist and mayor of Ottawa and then by the South African government in 1944.

Following South Africa's withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Nations in 1961, its status changed from High Commission to Embassy, and there was pressure within Canada to end diplomatic relations with the country.

[2] With the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa rejoined the Commonwealth and in April the following year, the first black High Commissioner, Billy Modise, was appointed.

A former leader of the African National Congress Youth Wing, Modise spent 31 years in exile after fleeing South Africa in 1960.