Since efforts began three months ago to raise funds to purchase property for Knysna’s first mosque, a staggering R1,165,970.29 was raised unto 22 June, the Knysna Muslim Council (KMC) reported this week. According to KMC chairperson, Omar Essa, just over R1m of these funds were raised since their appeal went national appeal in April.

“The balance was raised before April. The current funds will hopefully cover the purchase of the property, transfer, conveyancing, rezoning application and building plan submissions. Thus, the funds that are required to complete Phase 1 of our project = R309 029.71 This is to complete a temporary prefab structure,” he explained, referring to a new property that wsa found in the town’s CBD.

Essa said this meant that that a further R2.91 million was still required to complete Phase 2 of the project, which includes the building of a permanent facility. “Some donors have questioned the need for the prefab structure. We will re-evaluate our need for this depending on our income for the permanent structure,” he said.

To read the other half of this article, please visit ‘R1.1 Million Raised’ on VOCfm’s website.