Imtiaz Sooliman – Following the KZN floods, Gift of the Givers invests R40 million on school improvements.

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.