Cape Town - The City of Cape Town’s service workers were honoured with a special iftar (breaking of the fast) hosted by the Muslim Judicial Council (SA) and the Gift of the Givers (GOTG).
The iftar and dhikr (prayer) programme for service workers took place at the Darul Islam High School Hall on Wednesday evening and was attended by special guests and speakers, mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and GOTG founder, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman.
Around 300 uniformed members of Emergency Medical Services, law enforcement, Disaster Risk Management, Fire and Rescue Services, Traffic Services, Police, SANDF, SA Navy, Department of Correctional Services, and nursing, were present.
Addressing attendees, MJC first-deputy president Moulana Abdul Khaliq Ebrahim Allie said: “The gathering here is a culmination of a thought by the MJC last year in conjunction with some of your members, to say how do we acknowledge the frontliners.
“And aptly so, we as the MJC agreed that we owe it and it is our obligation, our duty to acknowledge all frontliners. The MJC acknowledges your contributions to the workable City of Cape Town and we would like to say thank you to you.”
Maulana Sabri Davids said the event aimed to fortify relationships between the City, government and the MJC (SA) and, by extension, the Muslim community. Hill-Lewis thanked the MJC for the invitation.
“My heart really bursts with pride when I see the work that you do for our City and in our city on a daily basis. When the nation was reeling from the tragedy in KZN, we had a disaster management and search and rescue and fire team that was there.
“We had 12 of them go; they did incredible work. Every one of you play a critical role in making this a much better city,” he said.
Dr Sooliman said he was happy that the MJC had decided to recognise and honour those in the emergency services.
“Our work is disaster intervention and people like you are key for disaster intervention. People don’t know the sacrifices we make, the trauma you go through, the families you leave behind. You have seen people die from Covid-19 in front of you.
“When there was no oxygen, you put them in the ambulance and you drove for hours until you found a bed in a hospital. You took oxygen manually and you gave them.
“You were like God to the people. Your service is not unnoticed, even if man does not notice. He above takes notice,” Sooliman said. Sooliman shared his key to “fixing the country”.
“We need four principles to fix this country, we don’t need money. We need spirituality, morality, values and ethics. You fix that, you fix the country.
“We’ll have a surplus of money overflowing because you’ll do things the right way, in an honest way, with integrity, and the moment you do that, in Islam we say, its barakah – blessing, bounties and abundance.”