Dr Imtiaz Sooliman. Picture: Gallo Images
Gift of the Givers founder Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman has been selected as the “Person of the Year” by Afrikaaans magazine, Vrye Weekblad.
This comes as no surprise as Dr. Sooliman and the NGO he leads continues its humanitarian efforts to assist those who are in need.
With the Boksburg Christmas eve explosion death toll now at 34, Gift of the Givers have upgraded its facilities at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH) to assist the influx of patients injured in the blast.
Dozens of people were left critically injured when a gas tanker exploded near the OR Tambo Memorial Hospital at the weekend.
The NGO’s founder Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman praised the construction team for their efforts and thanked them for their professionalism, quality workmanship, speed of delivery and working into the festive season to complete its stores upgrade at Johannesburg Healthcare facility.
“Injured from the Boksburg tanker explosion were sent to CMJAH also. It is imperative that collectively, as a nation, we ramp up the quality of public health care in every aspect of health delivery. This is life enhancing and lifesaving,” Dr. Sooliman said.
ALSO READ: Gift of the Givers responds to Boksburg gas tanker explosion
Gift of the Givers has been at the forefront of assisting those affected by the deadly Boksburg explosion.
The organisation said the destruction caused by the explosion in Boksburg was far greater than anyone could envisage.
Sooliman told The Citizen, the NGO offered its assistance to the Joint Operation Command (JOC) to assist the families and injured victims of the blast.
“We have put the services of our partner ambulance, Medi Response, on standby and will fund any ambulances required. Congratulations to the health and emergency services, SAPS, fire fighters and the neighbouring community for their incredible response.”
Meanwhile, the humanitarian organisation is also lending a helping hand to homeless Du Noon residents following a fire that damaged their homes on Friday afternoon.
The fire destroyed a number of structures and teams were busy assisting community members who lost all their belongings in the blaze.
Last month, Dr. Sooliman found himself among a plethora of South Africans who wanted him to be the President of the country amid speculation that Cyril Ramaphosa would resign over the Phala Phala report.
While many believed Sooliman is exactly what the country needed, he has no political ambitions, and instead remains steadfast in his mission to fix the country from the ground up.
Also Read: LISTEN: Imtiaz Sooliman ‘overwhelmed’ by calls for him to be president
Sooliman told The Citizen he was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support he received to lead South Africa.
“I appreciate the trust people have in me, but I got a spiritual instruction not to stand for president.”
“In early 1995, my spiritual teacher told me to form Gift of the Givers, and in ’92 told me ‘you will never be involved in politics, in government. You will always work with government,’” Sooliman said.
Despite the number of crises currently facing the country, Sooliman said “South Africa is the greatest country on earth.”
“This country is not falling apart. Yes, individuals are failing the country, but the country is not going to fail, because we’ve got an overabundance of good people wanting to do good. By with the same token, there’s a lot of good people in government, civil servants, people who want to do the right things. But they need somebody to just to push them and hold their hand,” Sooliman said.
Sooliman said South Africa did not belong to the government, but rather to all South Africans who live in it.
“We take responsibility of saving our country ourselves. We need to build this country – black, white, Indian and coloured, everybody, together in a human compassionate way and we can do it. It’s not impossible, we can save the country,” said Sooliman.
ALSO READ: LISTEN: Imtiaz Sooliman ‘overwhelmed’ by calls for him to be president
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