SA National Dialogue – Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman an eminent person?
As the song from the old movie has it. Who are you going to call? Ghostbusters.
Since the uncomfortable encounter at the White House between President Trump and President Ramaphosa, where the ugly specter of anti-White genocidal calls of “Kill the Boer” were shown on video, the rampant underbelly of violence and crime in South Africa was in full view of the world. The “Rainbow Nation” of Mandela is no more and Ramaphosa has been unceremoniously stripped of his halo. So much so that the deep socio-economic fissures and institutional decay in South Africa can no longer be played down or spun any longer. Ramaphosa has opportunistically, perhaps in desperation, declared a National Dialogue. Yes indeed, when the going gets tough, the tough get talking. His official announcement said:
“Yet we face persistent challenges. Poverty, unemployment and inequality are deep wounds that prevent us from reaching our full potential as a nation and as a country.
Millions of people are under-employed and unemployed. Many of those who work earn wages that cannot sustain them or their families. Crime, gender-based violence and corruption are prevalent across our society. We are therefore called upon at this moment to direct all our efforts to build a thriving, inclusive economy that creates jobs and opportunities.”
Of course, all this rot happened under the watch of the ANC for the past 30-odd years and Mr Ramaphosa, a veteran ANC leader, Vice President under Jacob Zuma and current President, was sadly missing in action. The object of the National Dialogue is grandiosely dressed up in his own words:
“It will be a representative gathering, bringing together government, political parties, civil society, business, labour, traditional leaders, religious leaders, cultural workers, sports organisations, women, youth and community voices, among others.
Through their various political, social and other formations, in their workplaces, in places of worship, communities, villages and sites of learning, South Africans will in the months following the National Convention be encouraged to be in dialogue to define our nation’s path into the future.”
He then appointed as leaders of this ambitious social dialogue an Eminent Persons Group of about 30 people consisting of a curious mix. A former beauty queen, a tennis champion, a mountaineer and adventurer, apparently eminent South Africans. It is doubtful many South Africans have heard of them outside their brief moments of glory. The one lone Jew, Mr Robbie Brozin, founder of Nando’s , a famous chicken fast food outlet – is not exactly a heavyweight in Jewish community leadership, nor in the business world, compared to distinguished Jewish business leaders such as Adrian Gore of Discovery, Ivan Salzman of Dischem or veteran retailer Philip Krawitz of Cape Union Mart. Only three religious leaders – two African Christian Church leaders and the head of the Anglican Church in South Africa – made the grade. The Chief Rabbi of South Africa was conspicuous by his exclusion.
Particularly of note is the inclusion of Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman, the founder and head of Gift of the Givers, a humanitarian philanthropic non-profit organization. Why then is his inclusion so egregious? It all started with the Times Of Israel blog by the writer, dated October 23, 2024, which was an open letter to the Helen Suzman Foundation questioning the bona fides of Dr. Sooliman as speaker at an event. Helen Suzman Piece.
It was pointed out, and indeed many times subsequently, that Dr. Sooliman is no friend of Western democracy or the rule of law.
On 7 October 2024, Sooliman said, “I don’t follow international law or human law. I follow Koranic law. I’m a Muslim. I don’t need any permission from anybody in the world to tell me what to do. I break the laws all the time. I follow Islamic law, and Islamic law overrides any other law. My law is very clear to me. Allah himself has instructed me. I don’t need men to tell me what to do. I don’t follow them.”
Strangely, despite the howls of protest by his phalanx of bigoted supporters, he has never been called to account for his contempt for secular law, the separation of religion from the State, and indeed a pillar of his own freedoms which he enjoys. Hardly a role model or person of good standing in South Africa, a constitutional democracy. His ideological support of Islamist theocracy is totally at odds with the very foundations of the South African state.
He has previously called Israel a “terrorist, apartheid, genocidal state”. Pot calling the kettle black. Psychologists call this transference – the naming, blaming and shaming of others for one’s own shortcomings. A popular demonization of Israel technique used in media by haters of Jews and Zionists with regularity. His hatred of Israel is in stark contrast with his professed universal humanitarianism. The majority of South Africans do not share this hatred and admire and support Israel.
His Jihadi credentials are deep. He is an ardent admirer of Sheikh Yusef Al-Qaradawi, the father of violent jihad and the creator of the fatwa (Islamic ruling) supporting sadistic suicide bombings. Banned from entering Western countries and some Arab countries, Qaradawi derived his radical Jihadi ideology from Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in 1928 (also banned in moderate Arab countries, e.g. UAE, Egypt). Not only did Sooliman’s Waqful Wakifin (translated to Gift of the Givers) donate funds in 2011 to Al- Qaradawi’s Union of Good – a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot terror organization, Sooliman was presented with an award for serving Palestine by Al-Qaradawi, the now-deceased designated terrorist.
Hamas, a Palestinian terror organization funded by Iran and schooled by the Muslim Brotherhood, is known for murdering innocent civilians, taking hostages and torturing them including the use of sexual violence on and after 7 October 2023. It is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the very same terror networks that Sooliman supports.
Behind the allure of his humanitarian persona is a sordid and systematic process by Dr. Sooliman to inveigle himself in the halls of power in South Africa. This is highlighted in the BizNews article of 7 July 2025 by Joshua Schewitz, Dialogue of the damned – Ramaphosa, Sooliman, and the Normalization of Antisemitism in SA. BizNews
He has quietly courted editors and mainstream media, ensuring editorial deference to him and Gift of the Givers, shielding him from public criticism by blocking independent investigative journalists. He has built ties with the banking system and intelligence as well as senior ranks in the police, some of whom have reputational baggage. He has embedded himself with DIRCO, the foreign affairs department. He shares platforms with ideologically aligned Islamist and anti-Israel NGOs and groups.
As the BizNews article succinctly states:
“What is sold to the public as a national dialogue is nothing more than a smokescreen for corruption. This entire process is another cover operation, this time involving Iran’s political proxy, the ANC, and the Muslim Brotherhood’s preferred brand, Gift of the Givers, along with their domestic syndicates.”
