UK’s Harry and Meghan Melts Hearts in Nyanga Township, South Africa

CAPE TOWN – Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan melted hearts as they started their tour of South Africa on Monday in Nyanga township, which is sadly known as the country’s “murder capital”.

The royal couple visited The Justice Desk in Nyanga, a group that teaches self-defence and empowerment to vulnerable children, many of whom have suffered trauma – key skills in a place where thousands live cheek-by-jowl in a squalid sea of tin and wood shacks, and where violence is a daily reality.

Harry and Meghan, holding hands, arrived at the non-governmental organisation to the sound of drum beats and ululating as women and children shouted out in excitement.

The couple greeted and chatted to women and children, with Meghan giving hugs to some, and danced to music.

“Meghan and I are truly inspired by your resilience, your spirit, your sense of community and your belief in a better future for everyone here,” Harry said to applause.

“Now is the time to come together as a community, and we applaud those of you who are leading the way for South Africa’s ongoing transformation,” Harry told the crowd, which he greeted in the Xhosa language.

Meghan, who addressed the people after Harry, said advocating for the rights of women and girls was a cause very close to her heart.

“The work that’s being done here is to keep women and children safer, which is needed now more than ever,” Meghan said.

“I want you to know that for me, I am here with you as a mother, as a wife, as a woman, as a woman of colour and as your sister,” she said to cheers.

Harry and Meghan later visited the District 6 museum that honours thousands of families forcibly removed during the apartheid era after the area, adjacent to the Cape Town business district, was declared whites-only area in 1966 and bulldozers moved in to demolish homes.

They met former residents of District 6 and toured the small double-story museum.

Large crowds waited behind metal barricades, straining to catch a glimpse of the royals, many with mobile phones. As they left, people scrambled to take pictures, with some shouting “Harry, Meghan, we love you” and others hanging out of building windows to catch a glimpse of the couple.

Harry, Queen Elizabeth’s grandson and sixth in line to the throne, has been visiting southern Africa for two decades for holidays and conservation work.

He will travel on alone for a working visit to Botswana, where the couple went shortly after they began dating in July 2016 and returned in 2017 for a romantic getaway to celebrate Meghan’s 36th birthday.

Harry then heads to Angola, visiting the landmine clearance project that featured in some of the most famous photographs of his late mother, Princess Diana.

He ends the solo section of his tour in Malawi, where he will meet President Peter Mutharika, before rejoining Meghan and Archie in South Africa for another township visit, this time near Johannesburg.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey, Mike Collett-White and Ed Osmond)