I am sure that you are by now all aware of the great tragedy which has struck all of us in the early hours of Sunday morning when Klaas was killed in an accident on the R45 near Groendal.

Klaas and Betty Maffa joined Myself, Eveanne and our children 18 years ago at Môreson and have been an integral part of our family and Môreson ever since then. No words can express the loss we all feel and the emptiness in our hearts.

Klaas was a man of the utmost integrity, strong beliefs and a sense of right at all times who judged people on their values, beliefs and behaviour and not where they had come from or what they looked like.

The New South Africa is poorer for his parting.

He was passionate about his family, his colleagues at Môreson, Môreson itself, his friends and animals.

He was a great man who long before most people transcended the barriers of race and the past to achieve great success at Môreson and in the community. Klaas will be missed by all who came into contact with him and by no one more than by Eveanne, Nikki, Blake, Dane, Charley, Andrew and myself.

Klaas lived every day of his life to the full and he was well aware that life is for the living! Value every day you have as if it is your last. Do not waste any moment of this, the most precious thing we all have.

Klaas is setting out on his first run in the sky with another person who was a great part of our lives and Môreson, the late Sean Dowling. I have no doubt that they are looking down on all of us and smiling. For them the pain is past. For Betty, Lerato and Ronnie and all of us the pain is just starting.