Cape Town – Gift of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman said a TV set, laptop, food and clothing parcels were among the items that were stolen from their offices.
Speaking to the media outside his office, Sooliman said that when his staff arrived at the office they found the front door open and when they went inside they were shocked to find everything crushed.
“We found some of the clothes we had prepared to distribute for flat fires in the Western Cape were missing, and for the medical room we found that some of the PPEs (personal protective equipment) were also missing.”
He confirmed that the case was being handled by the Lansdowne SAPS.
“In this kind of situation you are dependent on community support. Fortunately we have a very good relationship with communities in this country and after short while we started getting messages after the media announcement that things were missing.
“People started sending messages ... and they started identifying who was involved, where they were and within the short space of time the police arrested 10 people,” he said.
Sooliman said they had received overwhelming support from the neighbours and from around the country.
“They brought footage to show that seven people had entered the offices and from the information that we got, everything was 100% correct,” Sooliman added.
The humanitarian organisation has since taken to its social media platforms, saying: “We are in awe of the support, messages of goodwill and prayers we received after our office in Cape Town was burgled,”
Meanwhile, City of Cape Town Alderman JP Smith also took to his Facebook page and said: “Following up on information on Monday, Metro Police specialised teams affected three arrests and recovered some of the stolen property.
“In a joint operation with several other role players, additional information was gained of the stolen property being stored at four different warehouses in Hanover Park,“ Smith said.
IOL