Imtiaz Sooliman – Following the KZN floods, Gift of the Givers invests R40 million on school improvements.
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The speakers discuss various projects and initiatives related to disaster relief, including school upgrades, disaster relief, and local operations. They emphasize the importance of immediate response and responding within the hour. They also discuss various challenges and opportunities for donates and support, including animal-related health and animal-related education. They emphasize the need for schools to fund registrars and emphasize the importance of upgrading schools in KZN and the Muslim community in the financial sector. They also mention the shortage of labor and the importance of upgrading schools in KZN and the Muslim community in the financial sector.
AI: Summary ©
Asmaa Rahman or him, assalamu. Alaikum. Welcome back. It is
exactly 8:49am,
this is news and views on Salam media, and it gives me great
pleasure to be talking with the Person of the Year. Alhamdulillah,
none other than Doctor Imtiaz Suleiman Salaam. Alaikum to you.
Congratulations being voted as the person of the year. And I think
this should be internationally. I hope it is an international
accolade.
Thank you very much. Thanks for those kinds of words. Well, you're
doing amazing work. What can I say? Not only I, but a gazillion
other people in South Africa and beyond do say that you should
become the president of South Africa, but of course, you have
indicated you're not interested in politics, but really you the
caliber of person that can bring this country right.
May Allah reward you, and hopefully with enough pressure you
might just change your mind, but be that as it may. We're here to
talk about another amazing achievement by gift of the givers,
and this is regarding the upgrade to schools in KZN post the floods.
And I know that I shouldn't be asking you this question. We need
to hold government accountable, but what on earth happened to all
of the monies promised to KZN, post the insurrection and post the
floods? We've heard or seen, no progress in that regard.
Very difficult for me to answer that question. I'm not actually
sure if the money came to be honest, you know. And of course,
the amount of things to be fed to the government. The destruction
was huge. If you have to take the amount of money required just to
fix the roads, the infrastructure, the sewage and water systems, none
of which actually have been done to set some of the roads, you
know, the housing. So I really don't know if that funding came.
There was always a discussion between national and provincial,
between treasury and provincial, that the systems were allocated
your assistance, we followed, and one of the release are not
released. So I'm not even actually sure that funds ever came to KZN,
or what portion of those funds came to incident. Yes, some roads
have been repaired, and that's basically all. I mean, the water
systems they're trying to fix up in Tonga, I think they made some
progress with that. But other than that, in many areas, even right
now, there's water shedding because the water pumps are not
working. Probably the distribution systems are not working, the
management systems are not working. There's a bottle all over
not not many people have received homes. Homes have not been
debugged. Hundreds of schools have been damaged. Clinics and
hospitals have been damaged. None of those have been dynamic. Okay,
I'm going to try and take that up with a politician and see what
sort of answers we come up with. But for the purpose of this
interview, you've indicated the dire state that not only KZN finds
itself in, post the insurrection and post the floods, we're having
some of the situations all around the country. Some of those are
just due to outright neglect, be that as it may. Mtrs, Why have you
chosen? I mean, there's just so many other areas you could have
decided to improve. But why this particular project, a gift of the
givers has spent probably over 40 million Rand on school upgrades
after the KZN floods. It must have said something to you, done
something to you, spoken to you in a certain way that you decided to
take on this project. No, it's not. It's something that's
directed by dollars. Remember when the floods took place, we had a
huge campaign in in case it and we don't have to, have to, we don't
call people for money, but all corporates start calling us, and
they would say, what are the decisive interventions? And we
would say, immediately, it's hot meals, some putting a hot meals
and mattress and a blanket, because they got no homes and any
sanitary pact and hygiene packs, you know. And then we would say,
as some of them are going to their families or living with their
friends, they need a food parcel that will sustain them and their
families, because they stay with something else and they are extra
expense to their family. So let's give a food parcel. And then, of
course, the water plants where water was a problem. We put in 17
bohos In Tonga, six in how three in escort, you know, six in
amzinto and Mr. Abusive were all stuck on them everywhere. So the
balls was next, and then came rebuilding of houses. Of a lot of
people's houses, they came with severely damaged around a half
giant households, people living in many kids and all since selected
areas, we started rebuilding homes. And then hospitals needed
some intervention. And in that phase, when the water got cut off,
a lot of hospitals, clinics and schools needed water. So bottle
water was something else that we were doing. And then the schools
that were affected, it does the big the big problems with the
schools itself. And so the donor said, it's fine, do the
infrastructure use?
Select the schools. So the selection was very easy, because
schools start calling us, principals, management systems,
you know,
the community leaders. People started calling us to to see the
schools. And then when the Department of Education knew that
we involved, they called us. They said, look, they got a list.
They're not dictating to us what to do. If we can have a look, if
we can have we make our own judgment. We check, we decide what
is the best. So we've got our own construction teams that work with
us. We send them out to this big list and said, check all these
areas out. And they said, okay, they came back. And our criteria
is that no matter where you go to, there must be a strong teaching
ethos. It must be a strong management system and strong
support from the community. Otherwise, you know, we're not
interested in supporting something. The money will just
disappear down the drain. So they went and they came back with a
list, and they said, Look, we need to do this, that and the other. In
some areas, we the schools are totally un non functional. In
other areas, all the kids at home. They can't go back to school.
They're going to be spend the rest of the year, though. So they've
been made it into small change, medium change and large change.
And a lot of schools did it, what is called jetting. Jetting is
cleaning Stormwater drains. So they said if the flood comes, the
rains come again, the schools won't get flooded if you clean the
drains of salary. So on that basis, they cleared out and, you
know, and to cut a long story short, we selected schools that
kids could not go back to, and we selected medium schools, those
that needed jetting, and some that did already a sewage system.
Others needed toilets. Others needed a whole water plant.
Replaced the water system, replaced. Some needed electrical
work done. Others did ceilings, run, doors, windows, that kind of
stuff. And we took on 40 schools, and three or four were big ones
that cost between six and 7 million each to repair. And two of
those were opened up on between Monday and Tuesday, and a few we
opened last year.
Don't it wasn't that we decided, okay, let's do incident, because
health incident.
So tell me, mtrs are most or all of your upgrades, initiatives,
etcetera. Would it be absolutely as per the donor's request, or are
there also situations where you have the moneys and you as gift of
the givers, then makes a decision as to what project you're going to
undertake. And then also regarding overseas, you know, in these
disasters abroad, and I know you've been involved there as
well. Is that a call you make? Or again, is it donor driven?
Everything? Is donor driven? Is their money, you know? So, yes, we
have reserves. We have reserves. We The thing is, we don't wait for
donor money to start the intervention, because disasters by
nature, you've got to just respond within the hour. And you know, so
donors will density and fight. You know, it happens the moment the
disaster hits. We start getting calls from donors and from the
media and saying, Are you guys involved? What are you doing? How
can we have what must we do? And it was the same for the civil
unrest. It was the same for the KZN floods. It was, it was same
for the 2009 floods. And even with covid, before we could say
anything, we started getting the calls, what do you need, and how
much do you need, and where are we what are we doing? What's What's
your program, what's your plan of action, what does your support so
you spend more time giving them a protocol or a blueprint of what
we're going to do. And they said, Yes, we're ready. Let's go with
it. International disasters management is made. We say we're
getting involved. We're getting teams ready. And immediately
people start calling and say, Look, we want to get involved. We
want to do something. Okay, Alhamdulillah, you've it's just
unbelievable what gift of the givers has managed to achieve thus
far. What are your future projects for 2023
lots of there's lots of attention that's needed all around the
country, in many different fields. So what are we looking at now?
Well, we motivating donors. Look disasters is ongoing, so that's
something we can't plan for. We'll keep responding. I mean, did we
close on 23rd December, officers, 24 we had a big tank explosion in
boxberg. I don't bring my staff back. And then the Cape Town staff
a few days later to come back to work. There were eight fires in
Cape Town, you know. And then now this crisis in kakamas, with the
drought and the high temperatures, where eight people died already
from dehydration in parts of Adelaide, Alice fort, Beaufort, in
that area, the music there's because of load shedding. The
water systems are not working properly. So we put a truck in
tanker after tanker delivering close to 150,000 liters of water
per day to several communities. That excludes money water that we
take out of our bowls. So these are all the challenges that go on
every day. But in terms of support, we know broad categories.
We want to do as many schools as possible. When I say we want to do
schools, it means infrastructure, grade, toilets, sporting
facilities and boreholes. Those are the four important
interventions in schools, besides uniforms, stationary and, you
know, supporting feelings as.
Games, because there's a lot of hunger, hunger in school journal
in South Africa. In terms of health, again, infrastructure, a
lot of hospitals require infrastructure. The second thing
big demand is on catch up surgery. So some pieces of patients are
waiting between up to six and seven years for an operation in
various categories. That's the second one, the third big one in
health. We want to get support to fund registrars. Registrar posts
are cut. Registrars become specialists. Registrars train the
doctors below them. If there's no registrars, there's no specialist,
there's no teaching downwards, and it's decreased quality of
healthcare. We want to see if we can fund 500 registers over four
year period. And this is what we talk to corporates about. Then
balls. In the different communities throughout the
country, there's a big requirement those three already major
interventions, schools, hospitals and balls, and the other one,
which is not people related, is animal related. There's a lot of
animals dying or hungry or they can't be grown to the farmers
because there's no fodder or no water or not enough finance to pay
for either. And we're supporting fodder in a big way. What
fortified pallets to try to support as many farmers so their
animals can survive, so the economy can grow, GDP can grow.
Jobs are not lost, and income in the in those areas can grow.
Inshallah, I mean, bless you. Guide you and your amazing team to
continue doing all of these to to to complete all of these projects,
and much, much more. I'm just wondering, you know you speak a
lot about boreholes. We know that other aid agencies in the country
that also have a big focus on boreholes. Do you guys ever work
in collaboration with each other, or do you were totally
independently. I work independently because I've got
more teams, you know, and our boards are very expensive. They
could run anything from 200,000 to 500,000
and these, you know, are dependent on the I mean, we go very deeply
rural depend. We use top class geologists, hydrologists, we look
at the rock formation.
We look at, you know, we look at the type of j that requires water
filtration plants, whether they require solar or windmill,
electrical distancing, you know, from from electrical supply. But,
I mean, that's just now. You gotta put it up with solar pumps. You
know, we have to go back with solar panels to all our balls and
how far from the community the pie, type of pipes, the yield
test, how much water we produce, how much you must. When I said the
yield test, can't you okay, the aquifer is refilling at 8000
liters per hour, which means you must use less than that 6000 to
5000 liters an hour. So you don't ring the ball. So we do, we do the
testing. You know, repeat testing. Jojo thanks, putting slabs,
putting taps on the outside, so it could run anything from 300,000 to
500,000 or beyond. But our boards never, ever give trouble after
that. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah, really and truly
amazing. Uh, just before I wrap up, and this is i digress here,
but, and I probably should be talking initially, I raised the
issue about government and funding, so I need to talk to a
politician or a government official. I guess this next
question should also be asked of an organization like, oh, car. But
I'm wondering, you know these South Africa, the South African
Muslim community is so rich, and resources, financial and
otherwise. Have you ever had talks with any of these people about,
possibly the Muslim community buildings in the country and and a
university, or universities, because that's truly needed as
well, apart from relief that that you got to do on a very basic
scale, unless you got guaranteed funding, what investments those
are not practical, because the maintenance cost of those things
running the hundreds of millions now, Small community that's taking
care of so many people, families, doing charity locally and
internationally, doing the bit locally. Grab as much as they can.
You're asking for a huge task. You need. You need large volumes of
people. Because remember, although there is money, it's not, it's not
large sector of the community that has that amount of money. It's a
very small sector. And you take care of Melissa, take care of
mosques or Imams, of teachers, food parcels, a losses, a few
people are taking care of a lot of things. The moment you introduce
University and hospital, you're talking hospital along three to
400 million just to set it up. And depends what kind of hospital you
setting up. And then what about the maintenance? Possibly one. You
know, it's a very expensive business, and you're talking about
a public service hospital. It's impossible that cost it to be, you
know, to maintain in medical care the hospital, the nurses, then you
have a shortage of nurses. To bring extra nurses at the IRA,
it's too expensive. It can only be done in a rich country. You know,
it's driven by the state, and you want to do it in your own way. And
it's a private hospital, so it defeats a purpose. You.
You don't look at house the people who need it most. So it's not
different from any other private hospital, but as a public hospital
run by individuals at a committee, it's impossible. Okay, who knows?
It still might come to pass in the future. Inshallah, with your
determination and your energy, anything is possible. Inshallah,
shukran, very much for talking to us and once again, may last bahana
watala, except all your efforts, yours and the teams, and of
course, all of the donors go well. Thank you once again for talking
with us on the show this morning. Thank you. That
was Doctor imtia Suleman from gift of the givers, talking about the
current project that they've just completed, and that was 40 million
Rand spent on upgrading schools in KZN spoke about current and future
projects. And gosh, it's just amazing what this man has achieved
in,
gosh, in the time that he started up this organization, the mind
boggles, and he deservedly
has been awarded Person of the Year. He should be awarded person
of this century. Inshallah, may we see many, many more MTR Solomons
coming to the fore. Inshallah, it is exactly five after nine o'clock
news and views right here on Salam media standing by with the news
bulletin of the morning is our correspondent, Zahi jadwit. We'll
talk to him in a minute or two. Inshallah.