Mohamed Ameen Dabhelia – 30-01-2018

For years, thousands of Capetonians have been collecting water from a spring situated outside the South African Breweries in Newlands, Cape Town.

However, with Day Zero drawing ever closer, queues are becoming longer and quite daunting to stand in.

This prompted Western Cape Premier Helen Zille to call on the SA Breweries to bottle the water, which has raised concern among the Muslim Community in Cape Town.

This has led the Muslim Judicial Council to sound a warning to Muslims to avoid collecting this water as it will be distributed in recycled beer bottles raising the fears of contamination.

Mishka Daries, spokesperson for the MJC, told Radio Islam that in terms of the Cape’s history, there are various streams running down the mountains, and one of those streams run directly to where the SA Breweries make their alcohol.

“After being approached by Zille, the SAB has agreed to bottle the water, on condition that they use recycled beer bottles, where beer has already been stored in, they want to ‘sterilise’ this and then put the spring water in there.”

Daries says that principally and morally, the MJC does not want to associate itself with the SAB bottling the water, but have denied reports by a local Cape Town newspaper claiming that the MJC had declared the SAB spring water as ‘not halaal’.

“We are urging and encouraging the Muslim community to find alternative sources of water because these alternative options do exist for now.”

Daries says that the MJC’s Fatwah committee headed by Mufti Ta’haa Karaan is currently in contact with the SA Breweries in order to clarify the collection and bottling process to make an informed decision.

DA leader Mmusi Maimane has announced that day zero, the day when the taps will run dry in Cape Town, has been moved to 16 April 2018.

The Masjidul Quds & Habibia Soofie Masjid in association with the Muslim Judicial Council has urged the Muslim Community to attend the Salaatul Istisqaa (Salaah for rain) at the Sportsfield opposite Gatesville Mosque on Sunday, February 4th 2018 @ 6:30 for 7am.