Prince Harry sparks royal competition as duke heads to South Africa before William's own trip to the country

But William's 2024 Earthshot Prize awards ceremony will be held in Cape Town on November 6 - leaving a brief five-week stretch the only thing potentially separating the warring brothers.

Kensington Palace is still yet to officially confirm William's attendance at his ceremony in South Africa next month - though a social media post on Wednesday sent speculation spiralling that he could be there.

And not to mention the incredible impact that our 45 alumni are already having on the planet!

Can’t wait to be in South Africa this November 💚🇿🇦 #EarthshotCapeTown pic.twitter.com/6HTk9irVx4

— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) October 2, 2024

The Kensington Palace post also featured a video of William talking about the 45 existing Earthshot alumni, and was captioned: "Can't wait to be in South Africa this November."

But the caption didn't come from the Prince directly - so questions remain over whether he'll be in South Africa for the annual environmental competition.

But all eyes are on William's track record. As the founder of and driving force behind Earthshot, he has attended all the prize-giving events since the initiative's inception.

Last year's awards ceremony took place in Singapore, with prior prize-givings in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2022 - and London's Alexandra Palace in 2021.

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Princess Kate will almost certainly not travel to South Africa as she continues her recovery and return to public duties following the completion of her chemotherapy just weeks ago.

But it's Harry's parallel trip which has raised eyebrows - not least given his royal tours in the past.

Yesterday, the exiled prince was in Lesotho to meet business leaders, philanthropists and local stakeholders in support of his youth charity Sentebale - and will be in Johannesburg with the group to discuss how philanthropists can affect change.

Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, who co-founded the charity with Harry almost two decades ago, has been pictured attending events with "Mohale" - Harry's Sesotho royal name which means "warrior".

Earlier this year, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex came under fire for their trip to Colombia - which was labelled "utterly irrelevant" to British interests abroad by one source familiar with the work of the Foreign Office, speaking to The Telegraph.

While some commentators in Colombia itself made bombastic claims about the motives behind their invitation by vice president Francia Marquez.

One Bogota lawyer told the Mail: "I'm sure Meghan and Harry mean well, but everyone here is talking about how obviously they are being manipulated.

"The government has been drowning in scandal since it came in two years ago... They need something to appease people at home and make them look good abroad."