When jealousy and wickedness overtakes the soul

I have received a number of inbox messages from people wanting to know how much of money did Ahmed Timol secondary school raise through their annual fundraising event that was held at Gold Reef city on the 7th of December 2019. The school played host to international artists Samir and Dipalee who mesmerised the audience with their magical voices and on stage chemistry.It was definitely a night to remember. I am pleased to announce that after expenses, the school raised R240 000, the highest amount ever generated from a fundraising initiative.As mentioned at the concert, the money will be used to tar a road from the school gate leading up to the newly built school hall. The initial quote to tar the road was R 400 000. Hence there is a shortfall of R160 000.This figure may now be slightly less as MTN stepped in by assisting with the grading and leveling of the ground. In other words preparing the area for the tar to be poured. The management at the school will be accepting donations throughout the year especially from students and ex students who frequented the school so that this project comes to fruition in the near future thereby benefiting the school and the community who will hire the school hall for various functions.

With regards to the concert, I wanted to mention a few things that has been sitting on my chest for a while now. I was contemplating not talking about it to avoid unnecessary issues but i think the truth must be said as is. There were many families who purchased many tickets for the concert but on the day of the event they didn't pitch up. This accounted for almost 160 tickets that I am aware of. Some people needed to attend funerals, some said the weather wasn't good so they preferred staying indoors others had emergencies and well some people said "we were feeling uneasy attending a concert at Gold reef city so we didn't attend but if the concert was hosted at the school hall we would have attended". I personally don't see the difference and logic in this statement but then again i guess its different strokes for different folks. You cant win with our Indian community. Now whatever your excuse or reason was for not attending why didn't you take those tickets and give them away to people who would have loved to attend the event. Give the tickets away to school children or orphaned kids who have not attended a live show before. Why be selfish by sitting with the tickets? If you didn't want the tickets as you knew you were not going to attend the event, then you should have simply opted to give the school a donation and not taken the tickets or ask the school management to give the tickets away. The artists traveled from so far to perform for your school, to uplift your community,the least we could have done was to make sure that the hall was completely full. The fact that the school made a profit from the event heralds the event a success. But success for an artist is seeing a hall completely full. 72 percent of the tickets sold but many people didn't pitch up.

One thing that really upset me was the fact that there were people out there who were quite livid at the fact that the school was playing host to international artists. Instead of offering help, working together making sure that the school had the full support required they opted to do anything and everything possible to bring down the event from alerting SARS about the school event and then getting video clips and facebook pages related to the event blocked by getting multiple people to report the pages as going against community standards.In fact the weekend prior to the school event it was quite stupid and idiotic to see two mega Bollywood events on the same weekend at the same time. We are not residing in India where there are millions of Indians who will support different cultural events. We are a minority group in this country so why divide the community. I know for a fact that many people would have opted to attend both concerts had they been on different weekends or a different month altogether. What do you gain by trying to upstage someone else's event? What are you trying to prove? Some will say this is business deal with it. I say this kind of behaviour is not only cattish it goes against all the principles of proper business and moral ethics. I simply lose all respect for individuals who behave in this appalling manner going through great lengths to sabotage a charity event.Success is not about being the best in your field or being the wealthiest or most well known personality.True success is all about empowering, uplifting and working together for the betterment of society. What makes me even more sad is that Indians in general never stand together. We are always trying to out do each other. Can you imagine how much more we can achieve if we were united and supported each others businesses, events etc.There can be many event management companies or organisations within the community. Why not work together by communicating in a meaningful respectful manner discussing dates of events so that they do not coincide on the same day or weekend. Why be spiteful and have your event deliberately on the same weekend or same day as someone else's event thereby creating competition and of course dividing the community. Choose another day or month so that everyone's event gets the full support of the community especially a charity event.This is the premise of true business ethic. It's so much more rewarding being a part of someone else's success rather than running someone down. Think about it. For those of you who wish to pledge a monthly donation to the school I have attached the school's banking details. Remember, if you wish to leave a legacy behind when death comes knocking at your door, then do as much good as you possibly can. People will remember you for the way you made them feel, for the way you touched their hearts. Your wealth and status will be forgotten, but your good deeds and acts of kindness will be remembered forever.