Cape Town officials expressed embarrassment on Wednesday at having snubbed their most famous resident, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, by denying him the freedom of the city in a council vote.
"Obviously it's an embarrassment to Cape Town, this whole exercise. We're trying by all means to resolve it and get it out of the public eye," said Nomaindia Mfeketo, chairwoman of the council's executive committee.
Dr Tutu, Nobel peace laureate and chairman of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was the Anglican primate and archbishop of Cape Town until he retired last year.
Rounding off his first visit to South Africa, Prince Charles took a brisk hike in Cape Town's renowned botanical gardens on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. The walk in a light rain was a personal treat for the prince, whose South African-born friend and mentor, Sir Laurens van der Post, loved to walk on the same mountainside.
In the newly opened conservatory of the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens the prince accepted a Bird of Paradise plant, named Mandela's Gold in honour of Nelson Mandela.
The contents of the Paris home of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor will be auctioned in New York next February, Sothebys announced today.
The original sale was postponed in September after the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed in August. Mohammed al-Fayed, the Egyptian-born owner of Harrods, owns the collection of about 40,000 items. He had originally intended the proceeds of the entire collection to go to the Al Fayed International Charitable Foundation. The money will now be donated to the newly established Dodi Fayed International Charitable Foundation, whose main purpose is to provide funds for causes supported by the princess and Dodi.