Gift of the Givers would like to lay a complaint against the Independent Media Group on an article that appeared in several of its publications on 10 March 2009. These publications include Cape Argus, Mercury, Star and Pretoria News. The article was written by Sivuyile Mangxamba. The article claims:

1. "A South African aid organisation has come under fire for handing over goods worth more than R1 million to ANC president Jacob Zuma, who distributed some of them while he was on the campaign trail in Mpumalanga at the weekend".

2. "Zuma dished out blankets, food parcels and stationery to seven families in Kwaggafontein... While his entourage was accompanied by a truck bearing the name of Gift of the Givers, from which the goods were offloaded, Zuma made no mention of where they came from when handing them over".

3."Confirming that Zuma had been given goods valued at R1.2m to distribute, the Pietermaritzburg-based organisation's founder and chairman, Imtiaz Sooliman..."

The statements above are not a true reflection of what was said and what was communicated to the said reporter. I spoke to the reporter three times on Monday, 09 March 2009, at around 11.40, 15h30 and 18h00 and I repeated the following on all those occasions so that there was no misunderstanding:

1. There was no political campaign at the school where we were handing out the aid. The political rally was taking place at a separate venue, several km away.

2. Although Zuma was invited to our distribution, his attendance was not confirmed, and none of the 300 elderly people and children at the school were expecting him there.

3. When he did turn up he was there for only 10 mins. He had no political speech and when the crowd forced him to say a few words, all he did was thank Gift of the Givers, as he always does. Not once did he take credit for himself or for the ANC for the items handed out. In fact he gave Gift of the Givers full acknowledgement more than once.

4. Zuma only gave out 20 food parcels. No other items were given out by him. The total value of the food parcels was R5000, and not R1 million as indicated in the article.

5. Zuma never elicited any votes and made no political speech.

6. Zuma has done distributions with us before. In around July last year he distributed blankets to people in Tembisa. Five thousand people were present at the function, including most of the major media groups in South Africa, including TV, print media and radio. The Star (Independent Group) was also present and are witnesses that once again Zuma made no political speech, did not claim any credit for the blankets either for himself or the ANC, but gave full recognition to Gift of the Givers and actually called on Black Business to be more forthcoming and support Gift of the Givers.

All these seven points were made very clear to the said journalist.

In addition to the points above, I asked the journalist if he was present at the distribution event. He replied in the negative. He said he got the details from someone else.  I even made it very clear that Zuma himself was not distributing the parcels. He was doing it with our staff, in their uniforms, passing it on to him. It is only common courtesy that your guest does the honours, and this has been our practice for 16 years.

What was not mentioned by me was the fact that there were no election posters at the school, no ANC banners and no indication whatsoever that this was an election event. On the contrary, all branding visible was only Gift of the Givers, including our pop up banners, our uniforms and our huge branded truck. It was impossible for anyone to make a mistake as to where the aid was coming from. Further, when it came to the stationery distribution, Zuma called the Principal, asked him to receive it from us and to thank us for it. Zuma then left and did not wait for this part of the distribution.

In a second article, appearing in the Cape Argus on 17 March, written by Ella Smook, it states: "Aid organisation, the Gift of the Givers, could be in hot water-this time with the taxman-as a result of its alignment with a political party"..."In terms of the Income Tax Act, non-profit organisations, like Gift of the Givers, are not allowed to "use resources directly or indirectly to support, advance or oppose any political party."

We would like to know in which way have our actions benefited a political party given all the information above. The second article smacks of sensationalism and is in poor taste as it impacts on our credibility as an organisation, creating the impression that we have fallen foul of the taxman. SARS never contacted us. It was only through the public domain that we received numerous calls from well wishers who were under the investigation by SARS for underhanded activities. This is a huge insult on our integrity and dignity. The most offensive aspect of all this drama created by the Independent Group is their failure to ask for our input, before they wrote the second article, after they distorted and misrepresented the facts in the first article, publishing false information and selectively excluding very relevant, pertinent points.

We would appreciate your intervention in this matter and request an investigation of the Independent Group's unethical behaviour and demand an unreserved apology from them. As part of the apology, we require the full essence of this article to be published in a very prominent space within all their publications and not one small token apology in some denote corner of the newspaper not visible to anyone. We request an acknowledgement of this correspondence from your offices and appreciate a timeous response.

Warm Regards
Dr Imtiaz Sooliman
Chairman and Founder