The South African National Zakah Fund (SANZAF), is a faith based socio welfare and educational organisation established during the Apartheid Era as a means to alleviate the suffering of those destitute, needy and oppressed. Since its inception and formalisation in 1974, the organisation has moved rapidly from a ‘charity’ organisation, to an agency of empowerment, with a solid infrastructure, and a strong support base both regionally and nationally.
SANZAF is an agency that administers Zakah, an obligatory tax which Muslims pay annually with specific intent to alleviate poverty. As one of the religious pillars of Islam, Zakah as a concept also extends to Sadaqat, a voluntary tax used to assist communities outside of the ambit of formal Islam. A key component of the cycle of Zakah, is the involvement of volunteer workers who view their input as a spiritual act thus completing the fluid axis of money, resources and volunteer services that allow SANZAF to carry out its mission of empowering people in need within the community. As an institution, SANZAF’s base of volunteer workers, is not formally recruited as such, but is drawn from a pool of people, who constantly offer themselves up, and are registered on their database for future reference.
The organogram of SANZAF reflects how it has grown over a period of thirty years into an institution that has 22 offices throughout Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern, Eastern and Western Cape and employs over 40 full-time staff members who adhere to a strict code of conduct and implements a standardised service. SANZAF consist of a National Assembly, a Board of Trustees, and a Management Board with a National Director, a Regional Executive, a Regional Co-ordinator, staff and volunteers.
In the Western Cape, SANZAF have offices based in Bridgetown, Mitchell’s Plain, Delft, Elsies River, Paarl, Wellington, Malmesbury and Worcester. Trained caseworkers and fieldworkers attend to referrals, interviews, assessments of cases and updating of records. Information is documented before decisions are taken by the evaluation committee of SANZAF. Daily information of requests and assistance rendered are filed for future reference, accountability and statistical analysis.
On a daily basis, the Western Cape SANZAF caseworkers counsel 150 needy and destitute persons, on an appointment basis, from Monday through to Thursday. On average they attend 600 requests per week. These individual counselling sessions comprise of a trained SANZAF staff member who assesses the requirements of the individuals. A destitute person may need immediate relief, such as food, which is allocated on the same day basis, whilst those who need money, for debt relief, rent etc, will have their request processed within three days, and need to provide SANZAF with sufficient documentation to prove the validity of their requests. This aspect of Zakah deals with the short-term solutions. The biggest challenge facing caseworkers in this arena is dealing with the amount of people who need assistance, and debriefing of staff is built into the administrative process of the organisation.
Abduragmaan George, an administrator at SANZAF in Bridgetown explains that one of the key areas of focus for SANZAF is development programs which explore training in basic economics and priorities in order to help communities becomes self reliant. At least 50% of SANZAF’s annual income is spent on educational funding, skills training; home industry and self help projects. Skills training and motivation allow people to become self supporting in order to promote the rehabilitation and self respect of individuals. Their HAIRDRESSING program is just one of their many success stories. To date they have facilitated the training of 36 individuals who are not only qualified hairdressers, but have complemented this process with business and life skills. A program like HAIRDRESSING is accessible to people, as they do not need huge capital layout to start a business, they can work from home, or make home visits, and all they need is scissors, hair brushes and hair dryers etc. This therefore becomes a manageable and affordable home industry for a previously unemployed person.
SANZAF runs a series of varied projects under the development umbrella. In the Western Cape, these include 65 students in COMPUTOR LITERACY, 15 students in HANDICRAFT project, 45 students SEWING classes and 30 students in the MECHANICS program which includes training in spray painting. This means that 191 previously unemployed persons will have the opportunity to begin small businesses from home equipped with attendant life and business skills to help sustain their families.
SANZAF’s National Bursary Fund remains one of its most impressive achievements to date. Launched in 1985 the South African National Muslim Bursary Fund (SANBF) has spend more than R 15 million and invested in over 8000 students nationally in a range of courses from Hifz and religious modules, to degree courses at universities and technicons. The program is intended for needy, A Aggregate Muslim students in South Africa for studying studies at a South African university. The bursary is afforded on merit with more attention and focus being placed on the children of Zakah recipients.
In addition the Western Cape SANZAF provided 400 bursaries to students this year alone, a figure which has grown incrementally through the years. SANZAF also administers the IDB SCHOLARSHIPS TRUST, a loan bursary scheme through the Islamic Development Bank (Jeddah) and have disbursed R 4.8 million rand in this project.
Outside of development and bursary projects, SANZAF organises a range of programs to support communities such as the POVERTY RELIEF PROGRAM which provides financial and material assistance to those who do not have the basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter, clothing, education, medicine and resources to pay household accounts and debts. Their OPERATION WINTER WARMTH provides material relief in the form of food, blankets and clothing to the homeless and destitute families in informal settlements, during the icy cold wet winter months. THE MAKTAB PROJECT organises and develops local and regional committees to take over the full running of a Masjid, Jamaat Khana or Madrassa, whilst the MADRASSA SUBSIDIZATION ensures that students and teachers in impoverished areas are financially assisted to ensure that educational programs are sustained. The South African National AWQAF FUND concentrates on raising funds for the maintenances and buildings of clinics, schools, training facilities and places of worship. SANZAF’s FEEDING SCHEME programmes are conducted mainly at unemployment queues, old age homes, orphanages, and refugee shelters. Further subsidies are also afforded to schools to supplement their feeding schemes. A specific SOUP KITCHEN subsidy exists to supply Community Based Organisations (CBO’s) in poverty stricken areas with equipment, pots, stoves, gas cylinders and raw foodstuff to prepare meals for destitute families.
SANZAF has also played a leading role in the formation of the Islamic Relief Agency (IRA), an organisation established to help people afflicted by disasters locally as well as internationally. In this respect more than 300 organisations of various leanings and affiliations worked together under one banner and have aided relief in countries such as Iraq, Bosnia and Rwanda (War Victims), Somalia (Famine Relief), Marconi Beam (Fire Disaster Relief), Kwacele (Peace Rally), Inanda (Riots Relief) and many other flood, fire and tornado Operations in South Africa.
The success of SANZAF lies in the concept of Zakah, a process whereby Muslims are encouraged to purify their wealth through circulating a portion of their income to address material imbalances within society. This philosophical base allows SANZAF to ensure that the social welfare of Muslims is addressed. The challenges faced in this context rely of the effective collection and distribution of Zakah, and is dependant on the integrity of Muslims who pay their Zakah. Theoretically, the wealthier Muslims become, the more Zakah they can pay and the more they can further empower their communities.
As an organisation tasked with, a religious responsibility to ensure the welfare of Muslims, who politically have occupied a space of historical disadvantage, the challenge of redressing those imbalances still occupy centre stage. Whilst SANZAF recognises that government is not in a position to address issues on the ground, and that the intervention of caseworkers within SANZAF remains the first port of call for help, the notion of neutrality in the face of rife social inequality across South Africa is increasingly challenged. SANZAF is realising more and more that the task of building up of South Africa as a whole to secure the benefit of all humanity is a social and economic issue that needs to be addressed.
A developmental challenge facing an organisation such as SANZAF lies in translating the notion of welfare to the broader South African community to facilitate social solidarity and the spirit of reconciliation. It needs to be acknowledged that Sadaqat, the system of voluntary tax, which is set aside to deal with these issues may need to be increased? Could the model of Zakah be considered and adopted in other communities? Could the concept of Zakah exist in other communities without a religious component? The success of SANZAF and the concept of Zakah seem so embedded in its spiritual motivation that it appears to be the driving force for the success of this model.