The leader of the African Muslim Party has helped victims from Bangladesh to Bosnia. Now he is using his skills to aid Rwanda. Stefaans Brummer reports
Imtiaz Sooliman, a doctor turned politician and aid broker, has a plan to aid Rwanda which could put to shame last month’s South African airlift to the refugee camps.
Last month’s Operation Mercy Rwanda airlift cost R2-million for 136 tons of supplies — less than one day’s provisions for the refugee camps to which it was delivered.
Sooliman, a founder of the African Muslim Party who has become an expert at organising international aid, intends to use sea rather than air transport to bring 1 000 tons of food and medical supplies to the Zairean refugee camps near the town of Goma. The cost: about the same as Operation Mercy.
But Sooliman does not want to cause anyone embarrassment: “I just do my job. I know they had problems of their own.”
Judging by his track record, Sooliman could well succeed. Last year he became the first black person to be awarded the Star of South Africa, the country’s highest civilian honour, in recognition of his work in co-ordinating a R3- million relief effort for Bang-ladeshi cyclone victims.
He started raising money for charity as a schoolboy and says his hu-manitarian instincts were honed by his mother: “She always encouraged me to help the poor.” But his religion — Islam — is “the fundamental reason we do what we do. The highest value is selfless service to others, irrespective of their race or religion.”
Sooliman, who qualified as a doctor at the University of Natal when he was 22, has helped to co-ordinate aid worth millions of rands for Mozambique and victims of the Gulf War.
Two years ago, he founded the Waqfu’l Waqifin (Gift of the Givers) Foundation, which he runs from his Maritzburg home. Funds are raised through appeals made in mosques across the country.
Last year Waqfu’l Waqifin shipped what is believed to be the world’s largest containerised hospital to Bosnia- Herzegovina.
That mission, which saw Sooliman confronting not only armed militia but also “obstructionist” United Nations officials, took him the better part of a year to accomplish.
The hospital is now the main medical facility serving the east bank of the city of Mostar, and Sooliman has a letter from Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic thanking him for “the great service rendered by yourself and the people of South Africa to deliver one of the most valuable humanitarian donations to our besieged country”.
But he’s had the odd brickbat, too. He was boycotted by some Muslim groups when collecting aid for Bangladesh because he’d arranged for it to be transported by the South African Navy and was believed to be giving the Department of Foreign Affairs too high a profile.
He also took flak for his criticisms of the UN during his Bosnian mission: people charged him with acting too hastily and said his lack of diplomacy was counter-productive.
He shrugs this off: “Already some of the people who attacked me for using the navy have apologised. People needed help and things were already changing in South Africa.” And, in his view, publicly attacking the UN was the only way to get the hospital moving.
“Without appearing vain, I must stress that I am a fast learner and find alternatives for difficult situations. I have gained a tremendous amount of personal experience ofoperating in war zones and have developed a working relationship with organisations the world over.”
Now he plans to launch a national primary health-care scheme, using shipping containers to set up small clinics in areas of need.
Only one of his recent projects failed to get off the ground: his bid to get into parliament as the co-founder and leader of the African Muslim Party. The party missed getting a seat in the national assembly by some 4 000 votes.
Sooliman is convinced electoral bungling in Natal had a lot to do with his party’s failure: smaller parties were disregarded in the course of ANC and IFP horse-trading. He says the election was “the fraud of the century”, but adds: “It doesn’t matter to us as long as there is peace”.
For a man who has persevered in cutting through the welter of red tape in international aid missions, it’s a temporary setback. He says he and his party will be back on the hustings come the next general election.