Nicolette Dirk
Soccer games, feeding ducks and a dance show by pupils were just some of the activities Prince Harry enjoyed yesterday as part of his week-long tour in South Africa.
The prince started his day in Cape Town by awarding Archbishop Emeritus Des-mond Tutu the Order of Companion of Honour on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II.
But he spent the rest of the day interacting with youth at the Ottery Youth and Education Centre and Grassroot Soccer players from Khayelitsha.
The 31-year-old prince let his hair down when interacting with the Ottery pupils, who put on a dance show for him.
He fed ducks and birds during a tour of the school and told the children he wished he could have attended a similar school.
Pupils gave him a carved, varnished portrait of him as a baby with his mother, Princess Diana.
“This is a small gift we made which we hope will always remind you of us,” one of the children said.
School principal Mo Mahadick said: “They really received him with love.”
Mahadick said many of the pupils at the school came from impoverished backgrounds on the Cape Flats where there was a lot of gangsterism and violence.
The Ruben Richards Foundation, which runs life skills programmes at the school, helped facilitate the prince’s visit.
The founder of the foundation, Dr Ruben Richards, said Harry’s Foundation chose the school because “youth at risk was an issue he was passionate about”.
In Khayelitsha, Harry joined a training session with Grassroot Soccer coach Athiphla Sidondi and her team.
Sidondi incorporated HIV awareness messages into her coaching and included the prince in the session, asking questions about stigma and awareness.
“Young people are often scared to speak about HIV/Aids to older people so I wish there were more organisations like ours to make them feel comfortable talking about it,” Sidondi said.
The prince will also spend time in Durban and Johannesburg this week.