Imtiaz Sooliman – Gift of the Givers’ on being named the Social Justice Champion for 2021

Case at an unrest during the covid 19, you would find more affluent

people, generally, of particular color. Say, You know what, we've

been giving charity to some extent, but we now understand how

the less fortunate, the underprivileged have been fitting

all these years. It's time to embrace them fully, to increase

the charity and do things together, and you would find

white, black, Indian, Catholic, all working together for the

purpose of each other and for the purpose of those individuals in

the address itself. The same thing happened, you know. And you would

think that after there was such kind of conflict, there would be

bad feeling, there'll be hardship, there'll be distancing. The

amazing thing is, after it all stopped around the 18th of July.

On the 19th of July, if you walked in the streets and you saw the

people of different race groups, you would expect to see tension.

It was like nothing had happened. People got together. There was a

willingness to work together, not happy with what had happened, and

fix the country up. And ever since then, there's been so much that

has come out of that. If you look at all the workshops, the dialog

that the corporate intervention, community leaders, you know,

residents association, everybody is saying, we need to fix our

relationships with bridge the gap between rich and poor. We need to

fix what's holding us apart and what's causing problems. So as

there's been a lot of learning and people want to be together.

There's no movement to separate people. There's everything driving

people together, which has been a great, great lesson from covid 19

and the unrest.

All right, we've talked a lot about the work that you and your

organization have done over time and particularly in the last two

years, but I was very lucky to have met you decades ago, when we

were both very young and had jet black hair, and I met you because

you had won an award as a young achiever. And so the question then

becomes, what was it that got you into this life of service? Because

this has been your life for most of your life now,

yes, you know, it's not a conventional organization. You

know, let's make it clear. And I need to explain it India, so

they'll get up on morning and say it's with a form gift for

forgiveness, it never happened like that. And for write a

constitution and have a foreign principle. I met a spiritual

teacher in Turkey, 91 a Sufi Sheik is a long story I got there, but

in any case, I went back in August. And on sixth of August,

1992

it was a Thursday night, at 10pm they just had a prayer ceremony.

And after the prayer ceremony, the teacher was sitting in one corner

of the room, and I was in the other corner. He looked me in the

eye, and he looked heavenwards and in FLUENT Turkish. And I don't

speak a word of Turkish, but I understood every single word that

he said. He said, My son, I'm not asking you, I'm instructing you to

form an organization. In Arabic, the name will be wakul Waki

freedom translated. It means gift of the givers. You will serve all

people of all races, all religions, all colors, all

classes, all cultures, of any geographical location and of any

political affiliation, but you will serve them unconditionally.

You will expect nothing in return, not even a thank you. This is an

instruction for you for the rest of your life, and remember that

whatever you do is done through you and not by you. And then I

told him, but what exactly do you mean and what do I have to do? He

told me, one life you will know for 29 years I don't know what to

do, when to do, how to do. Wow, that's a remarkable, remarkable

story, EMTs, but we're so grateful that you've stayed the course, he

did the call, and have done the work, and I'm sure that there are

many that now look up to you and want to follow and do what you do.

Yes, you know, and I'm happy for that, not because of myself,

because, you know, we need to promote goodness in every way we

need. We need a society that focuses on goodness, even if

people have some bad spot in them or not some good spot in them. We

need to encourage the good within that person. And if you keep doing

that as a society, keep looking for the good in this person that

seems to have bad in time good on our power, you know, badness. I

want to I don't see whether it's something not good. And that is

spirituality, that is faith, that is belief, that is the essence of

human. Human is generally good, and God has made her, made us

merciful and compassionate. And we keep striving from now with

ourselves, for our kids, for our parents, for our neighbors, what

our what our different Grace groups, in work, in school,

wherever, and just keep promoting good and cut out the debt which is

not good in time. Peter, we will transform the society, and we will

fix this country. This country has a great future. It has great

people, and great things can be achieved. And I'm hoping at some

point, all those who left the country will come flying back here

to serve this country in.

As hard as all of us who are still here to fix it up. Dr Imtiaz

Suleiman, always a great pleasure talking to you congratulations on

this latest Award, which I guess in many ways, symbolizes a

lifetime of service. Thank you so much indeed for what you do, and

thank you for joining us this evening.

Thank you, Peter and my special thanks to all South Africans who

would have never have achieved this without you. Thank you so

much.