EDITORIAL: Trust Imtiaz, not our thieving officials
Once bitten, twice shy — well-wishers would rather send their KZN disaster relief to Gift of the Givers
It’s a depressing reality that with KwaZulu-Natal reeling from flooding that has left at least 443 people dead, few people are willing to trust the government with any donations.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on South Africans to provide “support”, and some have — notably Patrice Motsepe, who donated R30m.
But after the scandals of officials fleecing taxpayers of Covid relief money, there’s an understandable reluctance to trust them again. As the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation said: “We cannot let the Covid and state capture experiences go without learning from them.”
The government evidently knows this, which is why finance minister Enoch Godongwana spoke over the weekend about appointing an “independent agency as project manager”, which “could account for every cent”.
Instead, donors would prefer to trust Imtiaz Sooliman, who runs Gift of the Givers, which has received a flood of calls from international donors. Because they know that money sent to Sooliman, rather than the government, will go where it’s meant to.