When the South African national rally championship community visited the George and Knysna areas last weekend for the Garden Route Rally, it was not just driving and navigational skills that were on display for the region’s motor sport fans. It was also an opportunity for the competitors and officials to open their hearts and display their generosity of spirit.
Earlier in the week of the rally, on Wednesday morning, 14 children from the Rheenendal Primary School and the bus driver lost their lives when the bus they were travelling in crashed into a river 18 km from Knysna. Passersby helped to save 44 survivors.
Touched by the tragedy, the rally community raised R 15 000.00, which will be donated to the Rheenendal Bus Tragedy Support Fund. “We were all shocked to hear of this terrible accident and we were happy to make a contribution towards alleviating the suffering and the anguish of the families who lost their children,” said Richard Leeke, President of the MSA Rally Commission. “The tragedy was particularly sad for all of us as we had worked hard with the local authorities, land owners and communities, who assisted us to bring national championship motor sport to the area for the first time in some 17 years, to maximise the economic benefit of this event to the people of the area.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families.” Leeke paid tribute to the enthusiastic and generous support of the many people and organisations that helped make the Garden Route Rally the great success it was. “In particular I would like to single out Garden Route Mall outside George, where the rally started on Friday, MTO Forestry for letting us use their roads, and Simola Estate in Knysna, who hosted the end of the rally on Friday as well as the finish on Saturday afternoon,” said Leeke.
“A big ‘Thank You’, also, to the local community of Karatara Village, who, through their Karatara Golden Movement Club and Tjaila Karatara Miracle Trust provided outstanding facilities at the service park on Friday and Saturday. “We hope to bring our rally back to this beautiful area and its friendly people next year, when we will again make every effort to benefit the local community in any way we can.”