Search and Rescue South Africa (Sarza) has honoured the Limpopo branch as the winner of the Stuart Grobler Memorial Award for regional excellence this year. “Sarza is a national organisation with regional units. This year we won the trophy for the best Sarza unit in the country,” says Louis Menge of Tzaneen and chairman of Limpopo’s Sarza unit.
“We won the award after the unit had successes with rescues and callouts, including major bus accidents, and also for the training we completed over the last year,” explains Menge. “We have worked very hard over the past year to serve our community to the best of our ability. Our unit has grown exponentially, enduring and conquering tremendous challenging situations.”
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“We thank our community for their part in our success, without our community, we will have no purpose to serve,” says Menge. Sarza’s Limpopo unit is a crew of highly trained volunteers and they work closely with local, regional, and national emergency management services, disaster management, the South African Air Force, civil aviation, the police, the K9 Search and Rescue Association, the Mountain Club of SA Search and Rescue, National Sea Rescue Institute, Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre and other official, civilian and volunteer organisations.
The team from Sarza Limpopo is also on standby for adventure sports events. Most recently they were on call for the Miami Magoebaskloof MTB Challenge to ensure the safety and well-being of participants. “We also receive a lot of callouts to catch snakes and do awareness campaigns at local schools to help children understand their importance in nature and how to stay safe around them,” says Menge.
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Some of the major incidents that they were involved in include three bus accidents over the last year as well as the search and rescue operation when a school bus with 96 children on board crashed in February last year. In January a bus carrying ANC members to Mbombela for the party’s 112-year celebration crashed and they were on the scene to rescue the survivors from a gorge in Magoebaskloof.
In Phalaborwa, they were called out to assist when the town was devastated by a runaway fire that set houses and a lodge ablaze. Contact Menge at 083 272 3907 or sarza.limpopo@gmail.com.
