Kloofs, cliffs and caves were the focus of the seventh Mountain Club of South Africa, Search and Rescue’s (MSAR) National training meet held 5 to 9 Aug 2022.

Dean van der Merwe, media liaison for the Mountain Club of South Africa Search and Rescue, said, “This biennial event, the first of which was held in 2007, is the most extensive multi-organisational training event dedicated to non-urban search and rescue on the African continent. The overall objective of this training exercise is to raise the national level of training and provide a forum to facilitate the sharing of ideas, new developments, equipment procedures and standards between the regionally dispersed organisations and team members that seldom get the opportunity to collaborate.”

Van der Merwe added, “The event saw 105 professional and volunteer rescuers fly and drive to the Magaliesberg in North-West for four days of rescue simulations, idea sharing and in-the-field learning. Besides MSAR volunteers from the Mountain Club’s Gauteng, KZN, Western Cape and Eastern Cape teams, a number of local organisations from around Gauteng were also represented. This included volunteers from SARZA Gauteng, the Speleological Exploration Club (SEC), professional rescuers and paramedics from GEMS, ER24 and Netcare 911 and the University Of Johannesburg Department of Emergency Management.”