Imtiaz Sooliman – Discussion SANDF Fire Gift of the Givers prepares aid packages for victims

The South African Defense Force is pleading for help this after

approximately 1300 military personnel lost everything in a

wildfire that engulfed the lahoodla Military Training Center

near Kuruman in the Northern Cape now, aid organization gift of the

givers heard their cries and is collecting donations for the

victims and for more on this, we're joined by a gift of the

givers. Founder, Doctor MTS suluman, good afternoon to you,

and thank you so much for joining us. Just how far are you in

collecting donations for the destitute members of the SA NDF?

Uh, good afternoon, Cindy. We're not collecting donations. We're

releasing donations from our items from our warehouse in

Johannesburg, and we're purchasing some of the things that we don't

have. They've requested clothing, because all apparently, all the

clothing of all the military personnel has been burnt out.

They've requested some energy drinks and energy foods and

blankets and hygiene packs and, of course, sanitary towels for the

ladies. There's a combination of men and ladies in the training

center. It was a training exercise. That's what 1300 people

did. So we always do carry stocks in our warehouse, and we had quite

a substantial amount of stocks in our Johannesburg warehouse. But

there are certain items that we don't have, like toothbrushes,

toothpaste, you know, a soap. We've used a lot of the stuff in

the floods in the Western Cape in the last two weeks, so it's been

depleted, but by the next hour or so, all the items that are

requested will be on the truck and moving towards guru one, yes, and

I mean, what's government's role in this regard? Dr Suleiman,

especially when it comes to how their members have been impacted.

Is there no contingency, or other members only reliant solely on

gift of the givers.

Well, that's been happening for quite some time now. You know

whether it's saps, whether it's Defense Force, whether it's

disaster management, whether it's crisis in any way it's it's all

municipalities and government calling us. I think the budget

cuts has been a huge challenge in terms of the economy and in terms

of the resources of government. If you hear different departments

that you speak to, everybody is talking about austerity measures

that's becoming very, very strong, and you know, they don't have

budgets. You're cutting registered post in hospital, you're cutting

budgets to health facilities, you're cutting budgets to the

police, to the NPA, to the orgs, to the SIU, and every other

department in the country. They have a serious budget crisis.

Right now. They were looking at shutting down embassies all over

the world because of the crisis and the money we've lost, whether

you're stealing or to comrades or to straight capture or just the

economic climate and the Lost loss of investment. So all those

factors combined has made it very critical. So for for people

looking for government. But we look at it another way. Yes,

government should be doing something, but the end of the day,

these honorary civilians, if they take the uniforms off, they're

just very ordinary people, and we can't leave them stranded because

the departments haven't come to aid.

And Dr Suleman also it speaks about the working environment, I

mean safety measures at the military base or military training

center in Kuruman, where this wildfire started and affected

almost 1300

SANDF members. Clearly, there is either lack of early detection or

some form of a response team to ensure that you know their members

are protected.

Well, you know, it's difficult to say fire start very suddenly. So

I'm not sure how the fire started, what the pause was, and how it

happened, but apparently it started on the edge of our mind. I

don't know which mine and you know what the issue was there. And

unfortunately, in the Northern Cape, it's, it's a very poorly

resourced province, and there's two major challenges. One is

there's not enough trained personnel and equipment and

resources. So the fire starts there. You're not going to have

like hundreds of firefighters coming from nearby. The towns are

too scattered. They're too small. It's too rural. There's not enough

staff. The second major unlike what would happen in Joburg or

Durban or Cape Town or some of the bigger cities, the second problem

is, whenever there's a problem in the Northern Cape, you don't get

that too much of support, because companies feel they want to assist

people around the old companies. If they are in the bigger centers,

you would find them more willing to support causes or disasters in

areas where they are based, rather than areas where they are not

based. And we found repeatedly, what crisis in a Northern Cape,

very few corporate companies come to the party. So on the one side,

yes, we have the problem of the fire. And, you know, we, I'm not

sure, so I can't say that the defense forces to blame or not to

blame. I don't know. You know how it started and what is also there.

And secondly, from a state point of view, there's never enough

personnel from a state point of view, and certainly, of course,

the corporates don't come to the eight in a hurry in the northern

gate. And just before we let you go, for those that are in a

position to make a contribution or they want to support your causes,

how do we go about it? I.