WATCH: Many dressed in white and blue attend Gertjie’s funeral
Gertjie's former team mates and friends formed a guard of honour to pay their last respects.
Gert Roets (23), who died after a senseless attack on April 14, was laid to rest on Monday afternoon.
His funeral service, held at Barnard Stadium, was attended by hundreds of guests, all dressed in jeans and white shirts.
Roets’ family and fellow Wolwe rugby players sat on the field, under green tents, while other guests filled the pavilion. To their right, the sun shone brightly onto the striped rugby poles; the perfect setting to say goodbye to the promising rugby player.
At 2pm, fittingly to Kurt Darren’s Jy’s ’n legend, Roets’ coffin was carried onto the field by his brother Otto Rocher, stepfather Loukie, sister Cindy Jacobs, sister-in-law Yvette Rocher, brother Kobus Roets and friend Ryno Greyling.
The coffin was decorated with red and white carnations white St Joseph’s lilies and blue sea holly.
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“Welcome to all,” Pastor Van Aswegen from Kaleideo Church in Glen Marais said. “I wish it could be under better circumstances.”
“I would like to express my condolences to the family, colleagues, fellow players and all those affected by the untimely death of a young man with a bright future,” Van Aswegen continued. “There’s nothing I can say today that will change Gertjie’s circumstances.”
He prayed, “Father God, it is in times like these that we need You a bit more than usual.”
After reading from Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd,” Wiz Khalifa’s See you Again was played. Tall rugby players could be seen crying, holding each other’s shoulders for comfort, as the lyrics played: “It’s been a long day without you, my friend. And I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again.”
Friend Kobus Nel thanked all family members, friends and community members for their support on behalf of Roets’ family. “Thank you also to all the doctors and staff at Tembisa Hospital. Thank you that you tried to help him.”
All Roets’ fellow team members then formed a guard of honour as his coffin was carried out by his friends Kobus Nel, Johan Strydom, Jakez Kritzinger and Janu du Toit. Friend Ryno Greyling and brother Kobus Roets carried in front, crying openly.
These rugby players and Roets’ close friends paid their last respects to their fallen friend by shouting a war cry.
Family and friends then went to Zuurfontein Cemetery where Roets was laid to rest. In their hands, they carried a bookmark that read:
“It broke our hearts to lose you, but you did not go alone. A part of us went with you, the day that God took you home. If tears could build a stairway, and heartaches make a lane, we’d walk our way to heaven, and bring you back again. In life we loved you dearly, in death, we love you still, in our hearts you hold a place no one could ever fill.”
Roets was shot from behind by two
unidentified suspects while walking home in the early hours of April 7.
The bullet went through the main artery in his leg. In an attempt to save his life, his leg was amputated on April
13. Unfortunately, Roets did not survive.
