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EACH one of them played their part, as if a script prescribing split-second timing had been drawn up for them. If it weren't for their quick actions, two lives would surely have been lost.

The Cape of Good Hope Rotary Club last week honoured the brave men involved in the dramatic rescue of two tourists from Mpumalanga who were swept off Kalk Bay Harbour by a monstrous wave in August last year. Rotarian Gerald Norris said at the Community Service Awards dinner, held at the St James Retirement Hotel, that there were few instances that could fit in so well with Rotary's motto of "Service Above Self" as the heroic actions of the men who saved the tourists that day.

"It is a story of extreme bravery and great heroism in the Far South, and almost competes with the historic rescue by Wolraad Woltemade," Norris said. Woltemade and his horse had carried 14 men out of the sea when their ship floundered off Table Bay in 1773. He and his horse eventually drowned when more than 10 desperate men clung to them and pulled them down into the water.

The recipients of Rotary's 2006 Community Service Awards were George Mandalios of Kalky's Fish Shop, who, with crew members Ridah Mohamed and Noaim Jacobs, had gone out to the tourists on his boat, Starlife, when he saw the wave sweep them into the sea; and Matthew Mentz, Julian McLaren and Samuel Allerton, who, with split-second timing, had all rushed into the water to save the men. Mentz went out on a long board; McLaren sprinted from the Brass Bell restaurant and swam out to the men; and Allerton dashed along the seawall and dived in.

The wave that had swept the tourists into the sea was estimated to have been nine metres tall.

Mentz said he believed that anyone in the world would have done what they did, given the same situation. He was also inspired that day by the way people had come together to save the men. "Everybody came and helped - even the people on the shore were telling me where to swim, because I couldn't see the guys. My faith in humanity was restored that day," he said.

Mandalios said that the father of one of the tourists phoned him during Ramadan to thank him for what he had done. "He said that he was sitting with the boys, and would not have been able to share in Ramadan with them if it hadn?t been for what we had done that day."

Last year, the Cape of Good Hope Rotary Club's Community Service Award went to Dr Peter Jacka of Homes for Kids in South Africa (HOKISA) in Masiphumelele for his exemplary dedication to the community.

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