Many South Africans remember Rabie as the straight-talking, likeable winner of the first Big Brother SA reality TV show, but he is also a former track star with an 800m personal best of 1:49.20.
He supports the South African Toilet Organisation (www.worldtoilet.org) as one of his favoured charities and it is a cause he is passionate about.
One-and-a-half million children under the age of five die due to diarrhoea diseases because of open defecation (not using a toilet), he says. Thats more than HIV/Aids. We look for solutions to improve toilet and sanitation conditions in townships. Take farm schools for example, where 80 or a 100 kids only have two toilets. Instead of standing in a long queue they just quickly duck into a bush, but this can lead to poor health. We supply toilets and teach them about personal hygiene and taking care of themselves.
Rabie regularly teams up with SA running legends Bruce Fordyce and Nick Bester to run for charity and he is currently training for a half Ironman taking place in December.
I like running. Running is a lekker thing, he says. Me, Nick Bester, Bruce Fordyce and David Vlok do a lot of charity runs together. We did the Richards Bay 8km. Nick finished in 32mins, Bruce 37 and I ran 42mins. Runners are awesome people to hang out with. They are always doing something fun afterward.
Look out for the full interview in the latest edition of Runners World magazine in stores from Wednesday, September 17.
Photograph by Nick Aldridge
