Morgan Freeman’s Gift to Rugby Fund

from Times Live:

HOLLYWOOD actor Morgan Freeman has pledged R100000 to an organisation that helps rugby players whose careers are ended by injury.

Freeman, who will play Nelson Mandela in a movie about the Springboks’ 1995 Rugby World Cup triumph, made his donation in a telephone conversation with the national team’s captain, John Smit, last week.

Freeman’s donation was 10% of the R1-million raised at the 13th annual Bell’s Night of the Stars extravaganza and telethon, at the International Conference Centre, Durban.

The event, broadcast by Supersport, attracted support from rugby fans around the country — and, as it turned out, from around the world.

It was attended by the entire Springbok rugby team, which donated R50000.

Smit said he was glad his squad could contribute to the cause.

The organisers of the Chris Burger/Petro Jackson Fund welcomed Freeman’s donation.

The fund was started by the SA Rugby Union after Burger broke his neck and died while playing for Western Province in the Currie Cup final in 1980.

His Western Province captain, Morne du Plessis, now the fund’s chairman, was among those involved in setting up the fund that year.

Club rugby player Jackson, from Kylemore in Stellenbosch, was paralysed in a match in 1989.

The fund’s manager, Gail Ross, said: “[Freeman] had expressed interest in donating [to the fund] when he was in the country, so we gave him a number and a time when he could call in to make the donation live.”