Preparations have been made for thousands of people to attend the memorial service of business tycoon Anton Rupert, who died last Wednesday, and was buried next to his wife Huberte on Tuesday.
The memorial service takes place at the historic NGK ”Moederkerk” in Stellenbosch at 3pm on Wednesday.
Family spokesperson Hans Knoetze said Anton’s son Johann and daughters Carolyn and Hanneli were expected to pay tribute to their father.
Johann’s brother-in-law, Dr James Gray of the United Church in Hermanus, will lead the service.
Rupert died in his sleep at the age of 89, and was widely recognised for his marketing genius, and for founding the Rembrandt group.
Rupert was a founding member of the WWF and it was in his role as the president of the organisation’s South African branch that he took a lead in the creation of transfrontier parks (also known as transfrontier conservation areas or ”peace parks”), such as the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area.
With an initial grant of R1,2-million from the Rupert Nature Foundation, the Peace Parks Foundation was established on February 1 1997 in order to facilitate the establishment of transfrontier parks in Southern Africa. Nelson Mandela, Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands and Rupert were the founding patrons of the Peace Parks Foundation. (Prince Bernhard was another founding member of the WWF and a close personal friend of Rupert.) — Sapa