While Prince Harry has been busy in Botswana, Angola, and Malawi, where he arrives today, Meghan Markle has also been quietly busy in Cape Town.
Meghan and five-month-old Archie were spotted leaving for Johannesburg yesterday after a busy couple of days. Although the Duchess’s last official engagement was on Wednesday, she has been working quietly behind the scenes. Last week she carried out a private pilgrimage to the post office where the murder of a 19-year-old Cape Town university student sparked outrage and nationwide protests, and on Thursday she attended a breakfast meeting with some of South Africa’s leading women in business and politics to discuss gender equality and women’s empowerment.
In their speeches on the first day of their tour Harry and Meghan addressed the issue of gender-based violence in South Africa. They said they had been following the news in South Africa from home and wanted to use their time in the country to gain a better understanding and see how and where they could help. Images of the Duchess visiting the post office where Uyinene Mrwetyana was murdered last month were published on the couple’s Instagram page on Saturday morning.
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Aides only released the images after Prince Harry’s trip to Angola, where he visited the former minefield his mother visited in 1997, so as not to deflect from the work he was doing. Meghan was photographed tying a yellow ribbon to the railings of the Clareinch Post Office with a message of support from her and Harry.
On Sunday Buckingham Palace aides revealed that Meghan also invited a group of South African women activists and leaders to meet with her while she was in Cape Town. The women were businesswomen, politicians, CEOs, professors and academics. One of the guests was Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, who in 1956 led 20,000 women to march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria in protest of apartheid pass laws. She is the last living leader of the march, which she led at the age of 18. The Duchess described her as an inspiration not only to herself but for all women: “I was recently reminded that the first one up the mountain often gets knocked down the hardest, but makes way for everyone behind them. These brave women have been able to see how their struggle can pave the way for so many. For all young women organizers, activists and campaigners today, you must keep at it and know that you are working for this generation and the next, and also continuing the legacy of the generations of great women before you.”
Speaking to the women Meghan said, “We can learn a certain amount from the outside, by tracking it through the news, but it’s not the same as being able to truly understand what it’s like on the ground. Much of my life I have been advocating for women and girls rights so this has been an incredibly powerful moment to hear first-hand from all of you. I have been so moved by what I have heard.”
She added, “The leadership and the strength shown by these women is remarkable, and at a time when the issue of gender and gender-based violence is at the forefront of people’s minds, I hope their voices will resonate and not only give comfort but also create change. This is not just a South African issue this is a global problem that can only find solution with the attention and work of everyone, regardless of gender, status, politics race or nationality.”
Meghan, an avowed feminist, has made gender equality and women’s empowerment among her key causes . On Wednesday in Cape Town she met with aspiring female entrepreneurs and mothers living with HIV who have been helped back into the work place by the charity mothers2mothers.
Meghan is expected to continue her focus on women and the challenges affecting women in South Africa when she and Harry are reunited in Jo’Burg on Tuesday.
