SA desperately needs Ubuntu: Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman

South Africa is in need of Ubuntu - and its future depends on giving, sharing and our willingness to embrace a common humanity.

This was the festive season message from Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman on Wednesday.

"South African society is in a downward spiral - emotionally, psychologically and economically. The challenges are overwhelming, the mood depressive and the various interventions less than inspirational," said Sooliman.

He said South Africans needed to return to belief and faith as a means of solace - and conviction that better times are possible.

"In our own difficulty we need to understand there is a fellow countryman with a more profound difficulty; that our hope and our future depends on our giving, our sharing, our reaching out and our willingness to embrace a common humanity - looking beyond the limiting factors of race, religion and culture, which 25 years after our democracy is still polarising and tearing us apart."

Greed, ego, arrogance, selfishness and miserliness were qualities that human beings needed to negate, he said.

"Don't underestimate the value of a good deed. It comes back to you in a blessing - not necessarily material, but in ways you can never imagine.

"We pray for an end to all the social, spiritual, psychological, political and economical ills that have befallen our society - and a specific prayer for all South Africans trapped in foreign lands to be united with their loved ones soon.

"May we all have a blessed festive season and an inspirational 2020."