‘Let’s tackle a prince’: William swarmed by young rugby players in South Africa
The Prince of Wales was swarmed by children shouting “let’s tackle a prince” as he played rugby with former Springboks players in Cape Town.
Prince William laughed as he was singled out by the children from the Ocean View township, who launched themselves at him even when he did not have the ball.
The 42-year-old had arrived in South Africa hours earlier for a series of engagements centred around the fourth annual Earthshot Prize awards.
He showed off his rugby skills during a coaching session alongside Springboks legends including Tendai Mtawarira, known as The Beast – the most-capped prop in South African history – and Percy Montgomery, a full-back who played in the team that beat England in the 2007 Rugby World Cup final.
During one drill, Joel Stransky, a former fly-half who scored all of South Africa’s points during the 1995 World Cup final victory, could not resist grabbing the Prince’s jacket as he tried to yank him away from the ball.
Rugby is one of the most popular sports in South Africa, with a following of more than 10 million. The national team is one of its biggest cultural symbols.
Mtawarira joked about his last meeting with the Prince, which came in a changing room when the South African star was wearing just a towel.
“You’re still as big as you were – bigger,” William said after shaking hands with the imposing ex-player.
Mtawarira said afterwards: “I shook his hand, and I said it was nice to shake your hand now I’m fully dressed as opposed to half-naked.”
The Prince, who is patron of the Welsh Rugby Union, was joined at the Ocean View Secondary School by Jason Leonard, the former England rugby player and the chief executive and founder of the Atlas Foundation, which uses the sport to engage children living in poverty in South Africa’s townships.
Mr Leonard showed the Prince around the Atlas Digi Bus, which provides computer skills lessons for almost 1,000 primary school children each week.
It enabled the heir to the throne to see the impact of the apartheid legacy on communities such as Ocean View, and the work being undertaken to create a safe space for children out of the reach of gangs.
Last month, the Prince impressed Louis Rees-Zammit, a former Welsh rugby player who recently switched to NFL, with his skills during an official engagement. “He can throw the ball,” he said. “He can throw the ball better than me. He can get a good spiral on the ball as well, not like me!”
Earlier on Monday, the Prince addressed 120 young environmentalists in Cape Town as he began his visit, which will highlight his passion for conservation and determination to drive environmental change.
He joined the young people, selected as “future leaders” and flown in from across Africa and South-East Asia for an Earthshot youth programme on a rooftop in the heart of the city.
All aged between 18 and 35, they were largely chosen from a pool of 1,800 applications from 50 countries.
The Prince’s engagements in South Africa are centred around environmental issues and the Earthshot Prize, which he launched in 2019.
Throughout the week, he will be wearing and showcasing sustainable clothing, Kensington Palace said. The shirt he wore on Monday morning was made by Ecoalf, a brand founded in 2009 that uses 100 per cent recycled products and packaging.
The Prince’s visit is his first to Africa since a rhino-spotting trek in Namibia in 2018 inspired him to launch the Earthshot Prize.
At the time, he was frustrated by the “pessimism and despair” of the global debate over climate change but was struck by the “innovative solutions” being created on the ground.
A year later, the Earthshot Prize, the “most ambitious environmental prize in history”, was born. He has spoken of his desire to use the visit to inspire young people across Africa who are engaged with climate issues.
Hannah Jones, the chief executive of Earthshot, said the focus was particularly on engaging Generation Z, those born in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
A “green carpet” event, to be broadcast live before the award ceremony on Wednesday, will be hosted by Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, the Nigerian television presenter, and Moozlie, the South African rapper, who have a combined social media following of 9.5 million.
The “very lively” 90-minute show will capture arrivals and focus on sustainable fashion, while the award ceremony itself will feature performances by acts such as Davido and Uncle Waffles, popular with young people.
The Earthshot Prize is to launch a series of programmes targeting children as young as five after it emerged that 2,000 young people had entered its first ever Blue Peter competition.
Children aged five to 15 were invited to submit an original idea aimed at achieving one of the five “Earthshots”, the aspirational environmental goals established by the Earthshot Prize.
The Prince was welcomed to Cape Town by Ms Jones, who introduced him to Nomzamo Mbatha, the host of Earthshot Week, before he joined the young people to chat about their respective sustainability projects and experiences.
On Tuesday, the heir to the throne will continue his evolution into a global statesman by joining a meeting with Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, and Ronald Lamola, Mr Lammy’s South African counterpart.
The meeting is considered a follow-up to Mr Ramaphosa’s state visit to London in November 2022 – the first of the King’s reign – and has been described as the “highest-level engagement” that will help cement a “really important” bilateral relationship.
As he seeks to create a legacy that stretches well beyond his visit, the Prince will also this week announce a welfare package for wildlife rangers that aims to support more than 10,000 people over five years
The initiative follows the death of Anton Mzimba, 42, an “incorruptible” park ranger who was gunned down by hitmen at his home in 2022, just months after briefing the Prince on how organised crime had become heavily involved in rhino poaching in southern Africa.
The Prince was so upset that he made a significant private donation to support Mr Mzimba’s family.
The trip is the Prince’s first major overseas visit this year. He travelled without his wife, the Princess of Wales, who stayed at home as she continued to prioritise her recovery from cancer following several months of chemotherapy.
