Dear Valued Stakeholder
It is that time of the year where we present our valued stakeholders with our last edition of Mopalami.
Naturally as the year draws to a close, we take time to look back and take stock of the events that occurred throughout the year.
It is that time of the year where we also celebrate our achievements as well as make plans to improve on areas where we did not achieve the targets we had personally set for ourselves.
More importantly, this is the time to recharge and spend time with family.
The past couple of years have been rather tough for our country economically and the impact thereof has manifested in an increase in the unemployment rate to a staggering 27%.
Despite the size of our economy when compared to other African countries, our economy has battled to break the 1% growth margin.
This paints an unhealthy picture for many South Africans and businesses.
As if the economy was not enough to contend with, our country, in particular the Free State has suffered increased temperatures and drought which resulted in much hardship to farmers in the region.
All of this combined mean that the ordinary men and women on the streets are unable to afford basic necessities.
We are privileged that despite the above mentioned gloomy economic environment, our passenger representatives, management representatives together with our Provincial authority through the Joint Route Management Committee were able to find common ground in terms of the annual fare increase.
The fare increase, as unsettling as it may have been to some, has played a key role in ensuring that our company is able to implement some measures to improve our service offering.
We are proud to have been able to continue with our Corporate Social Investment initiatives of which the key purpose is to give back to our deserving community.
Through what we have come to refer as our IBL CARES initiative, we have managed to:
Continue transporting nearly one thousand learners on daily basis at no cost to their parents.
Continue with our support for the community through various sporting donations.
Continue to support numerous welfare organisation and non-profit organisations.
Continue to give back to our passengers through various competitions such as Lucky Draw.
Improve the competition to benefit more communities.
Strategically partner with various institution to improve our product offering.
Provide our valued passengers with free WI-FI which some use to find employment.
Support small business enterprise development through our donations, outsourcing employee shuttle services as well as security services.
More importantly though, has been our ability to improve the standard of our bus fleet through our refurbishment programme.
Our technical department is well on its way to achieving a target of 40 buses per financial year that are refurbished internally.
Through the programme, we replace all seats, floors and damaged panels. We have also been able to replace nearly 18 buses in our fleet.
All these activities are aimed at ensuring that we provide an affordable and reliable service.
I am proud of the efforts by all our employees and I can assure all our stakeholders that we remain committed to improving our service offering.
Throughout the year some employees receive Recognition Awards for their selflessness and for going the extra mile.
To our valued passengers and other key stakeholders, we are grateful to have been in partnership with you this year, your contribution has enabled us to achieve some of these milestones.
On behalf of the entire IBL family we wish all our passengers , suppliers and employees a safe and happy festive season and a prosperous 2020
George Mokgothu
Chief Executive Officer
