Friends of the Rail and its members send their sincere condolences to Stephaan's family. They are in our thoughts.Hi All.
It is with great sadness that I wish to advise of the sudden and tragic death of Stephaan Jordaan of Hexpas Ecotrek. I came to know Stephaan well, as apart from being a frequent passenger on his train trips I was helping him with the Transnet negotiations for a branch line concession for the Hex Valley line. Apart from being a prominent member of the local farming community, he was involved in ecologically related projects, hiking trails, a mountain top resort, mountain biking and 4 x 4 routes. He was a champion of local tourism and has appeared on television to promote the Hex River valley and its attractions. He rescued the abandoned Hex River railway line and has successfully run tractor rides during the past few years (around 400 trips completed), as well as having plans to preserve other railway coaching stock when the concession was finalized. His foresight and determination has seen the creation of an important railway heritage venture and he had made a huge commitment in terms of time, historical research and capital in bringing this to fruition. The road ahead for Hexpas is not clear, but I will naturally offer my assistance to the family.
The family has experienced another tragedy in the past year - his daughter was involved in a freak vehicle accident which resulted in the death of her son (Stephaan's grandson) and leaving her and her other son seriously injured.
He will be sadly missed.
Kind regards, Len Smuts.
Let us also hope that, despite the loss of Stephaan, they can find a way to keep Hexpas going forward.
