Dear and valued stakeholders

Alex Elle, a writer, poet and wellness advocate once said “You are not a victim for sharing your story. You are a survivor setting the world on fire with your truth. And you never know who needs your light, your warmth and raging courage”.

This publication is just one of the avenues through which Interstate Bus Lines tells our story. We have several other channels, including various social media platforms, through which we have recently observed and unearthed a trail of indicators of a deliberate campaign by our now-known detractors to rewrite and tell our story as if they are part of it.

We also now know some of the influential individuals behind these nefarious efforts of negatively rebranding our reputable company in the hope of benefitting from the harm they intend to inflict on this 48-year-old brand.

As Roy T Bennett once said “What you stay focused on, will grow”. We will continue to write our own story while remaining focused on our daily responsibilities to the communities that have trusted us for the past 48 years. We have gone through similar and even uglier efforts in the past, and by God’s grace, we survived. We continue to use these lessons learned to move forward. When Jim Rohn said, “The greatest value of the past is how wisely we invest it in the future”, he was spot on.

As we write our own true story, you will read about the true and authentic organisational culture at Interstate Bus Lines, the impact we have made in the lives of the passengers who have loyally supported us over the years and who value our services, the many positive stories of our contribution to the communities we serve, as well as some of the women/youth and enterprise development success stories.

Furthermore, we announce our impending annual fare increase, which we know will provide an ideal opportunity for some of our detractors to peddle big lies to profit from misleading the public and commuter communities we serve. The truth is that we have no choice but to raise our fares to ensure the sustainability of the services entrusted to us by the Provincial Department of Community Safety, Roads and Transportation.

We do this in collaboration with our key stakeholders, such as elected commuter representatives, the broader commuter community and our shareholders and we are always mindful of the impact this has on our already economically and socially burdened loyal commuters. We appreciate the leadership and guidance that Department officials and leadership always provide up to the point of implementation approval.

We want to reassure our loyal commuters that we are making this fare adjustment to ensure that our services continue to benefit the communities we serve.

Over the years, we have witnessed the demise of once glorious institutions such as railways, power supply institutions, municipalities and so on, with the main cause and crux of their demise being a lack of leadership and principled management to make decisions in the best interests of the institutions rather than to appear popular to the public and for their own benefit.

This is not the case with us, but we will continue to be honest and courageous in telling the truth, even if it means being unpopular for the sake of the company’s long-term viability.

If we do not raise the fares on an annual basis in accordance with the economic indicators that apply to this process, we will lose money and eventually close our doors, which will not be in the best interests of the communities we serve, who have already suffered because of previous regimes’ spatial planning policies. We will delve deeper into this annual process in future publications and tell our true story to educate our public about how we make such decisions because we genuinely care about them.

We are steadfast in our belief that Interstate Bus Lines belongs to the communities we serve, which is why we chose Ya Rona as our slogan. We encourage our commuters to contact our management team if they need clarification on any of the issues that affect them, rather than raising concerns on social media, which does not provide ample opportunity to obtain factual clarification.

We’ve had people come to us over the years who thought they understood the public transportation environment, only to be humbled by the practical exposure to the behind-the-scenes activities that we deal with. They now appreciate the complexity of managing the activities behind these massive operations. It is therefore my plea that you engage us with an open mind so that we can tell our true story as it is factual rather than from bystanders, who are often like sports spectators criticizing both players and coaches while they are in their comfort zone.

Thank you for your loyal support and positive relationship over the years.

Be Blessed.

George

George Mokgothu
IBL Chair Person