Prince William expands his reach as statesman with South Africa visit

Prince William is expanding his reach as a statesman as he prepares to arrive in South Africa to host his annual Earthshot Prize environmental awards.

The British government are using his presence in Cape Town to facilitate a meeting with the country's President, Cyril Ramaphosa, along with Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who is travelling to the city specially to attend.

It is part of a huge UK drive to develop and underpin links across Africa in areas as diverse as trade and climate change.

High Commissioner Antony Phillipson revealed that the meeting, which will take place on Tuesday, had come as a direct response of a historic State Visit to the UK by the President hosted by the King - the first of his reign - in November 2022.

He told the Mail: 'We are delighted to have the Prince of Wales here this week and are organising [a number of] bilateral events around it.

'We very much see this as a follow up to the state visit of 2022 which we continue to see here as an historic moment between UK and South Africa. The Foreign Secretary will also be joined in the call on the president, in fact he invited them both.

'This is the highest level of engagement between the UK and South Africa….and a follow up to the State Visit. It's a wonderful chance to highlight some of the key themes in the UK South Africa relationship around environment, climate, nature, growth and opportunity for all, including the younger generations.'

Highlighting the importance of the Royal Family in international 'soft diplomacy', Mr Phillipson described how a number of significant deals and agreements on everything from trade to science and technology had been signed as a result of the State Visit, which saw a glittering State Banquet held in the politician's honour.

They are hoping to build on this even further this week with an official biannual UK/South Africa Forum.

He said: 'When we were arranging the state visit used it not only as a platform for engagement between the President and and His Majesty The King, there was also a high level delegation of ministers accompanying Mr Ramaphosa…. and we used that visit to sign new agreements.

'We used the state visit to signal at the highest level that there is a strong partnership with South Africa and also to underpin agreements, which we have followed up in the two years since then.

'I think the Royal Family plays a particular role in terms of engagement, it's the highest level of engagement we can offer the president.'

A Kensington Palace spokesman also acknowledged that the bettering of global relationships was a 'golden thread' running through the last three Earthshot Prize awards event.

Prince William is due to arrive in Cape Town tomorrow (Monday) as part of the four-day visit for the fourth annual Earthshot Prize on Wednesday.

He set up his decade-long awards to seek out and develop the most positive global solutions to the environmental crisis.

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Each year five winners are chosen, each receiving a staggering £1 million in prize money to help 'scale up' their ideas.

This year's finalists range from an alliance of indigenous groups working to protect the Amazon to a company that makes sustainable refrigeration.

The prince - whose wife, the Princess of Wales has decided to remain at home with their children as she continues her slow recovery from cancer treatment - will also undertake a series of engagements in communities around Cape Town.

Although it contributes least to global warming and has the lowest emissions, Africa is the most vulnerable continent to the impacts of climate change.

Earthshot CEO Hannah Jones said William wanted to instigate a decade of 'decisive and transformative change'.

To date it has already given away £20 million in prize money and helped organisations access a further £77 million in resources to scale up their ideas. They also provide guidance and mentoring.

In honour of the event and William's visit, The Mayor of Cape Town will this week replant a lily that has been extinct for more than a 100 years in the region because of disappearing wetland that they have renamed The Earthshot Lily.

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Dubbed the prince's 'Super Bowl' moment, the prize-giving ceremony on Wednesday will recognise environmental solutions to 'repair' the planet and will be broadcast to 50 African countries with a potential African audience of millions, and screened online.

Cape Town's Table Mountain and other landmarks will be lit up green during the four-day Earthshot Week hosted by the city and attended by William, and 1,000 community stalwarts have been invited to the ceremony in recognition of their efforts.

The Earthshot Prize's green carpet has been a fixture since William first staged the awards ceremony three years ago in London, followed by Boston and Singapore last year.

Guests have been asked to 're-wear' their wardrobe or spotlight African designers to highlight the importance of local talent and sustainable fashion and arrivals on the famous walkway will be livestreamed on the Earthshot Prize's YouTube channel, with hosts Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and Moozlie.

The awards event will be staged in a reusable dome that has been used for a number of events, with the production ceremony creating around 650 jobs locally. It will be opened by composer and singer Lebo M, performing Circle Of Life from The Lion King in a pre-recorded performance from the top of Table Mountain.