AVBOB Integrated Annual Report 2018

THE AVBOB STORY Who is AVBOB? Our name stands for funerals and funeral insurance in South Africa. But we are so much more than this: yes, we are that sympathetic voice on the other end of the line, a shoulder to cry on, a steady partner to rely on… but we are also a champion of literacy, the builder of schools and libraries, a sponsor of poetry and song. 100 YEARS OLD. AND 100 YEARS STRONG . It all began with a singular vision. In the darkness and death following the First World War, returning soldiers brought the deadly Spanish Flu with them in 1918. Deaths increased to the extent that more people passed away in a single day than would normally die in a month. The South African landscape was littered with the makeshift mass graves of those devastated by disease and poverty. In the midst of this devastation, a partially-blind schoolmaster, HH van Rooijen, took it upon himself to create a burial society – a stokvel, if you will. The idea was simple: each human being is entitled to a digni ed funeral, at an affordable price. One hundred years later, that principle still holds true for AVBOB. On 15 August 1918, AVBOB was formally established out of an informal grouping which had been founded in 1915 to provide mutual support to its members. This small group would grow to become a household name at the southernmost tip of Africa. Van Rooijen’s approach was to put people rst. The money, he believed, was secondary, and would somehow always follow. His policy to ‘put people rst’ paid off, and the society grew steadily. In 1922, AVBOB purchased its rst motor vehicle, transported by train to Bloemfontein. Gone were the horse-drawn hearses. In March that year, AVBOB conducted its rst state funeral for the late General Christiaan de Wet. By 1928, AVBOB was in a position to make its own hearses, and was nding ways to support local suppliers in response to growing demand. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, AVBOB faced a crisis. Previously, all the raw materials needed for funeral ware were imported, and they were now unavailable. So AVBOB began to manufacture all funeral goods locally. With the scarcity of sheet metal at the time, tin cans were fashioned into exquisite, hand-painted wreaths. AVBOB was upcycling and was ‘proudly South African’ long before these terms even existed! As the organisation continued to grow, the slogan, appropriately, was ‘AVBOB is everywhere’. And AVBOB was for everyone. In late 1947, AVBOB became the rst organisation to sell funeral policies to all racial groups. In this way, AVBOB honoured its promise to render affordable, digni ed funerals to all South Africans. AVBOB outgrew the small hamlet of Bloemfontein, and needed specialised legal, actuarial and medical underwriting services. So, in the mid-50s, AVBOB set up its head of ce in Pretoria. And in the mid-60s, the rst AVBOB branch opened in Namibia. Throughout the turbulent political climate of the ‘70s – culminating in the tragic consequences of the Soweto riots – AVBOB stood strong and provided funerals to community leaders, like the legendary Ciskei chief, General Magoma. As anti-apartheid protest hit South Africa in the mid-80s, AVBOB was there to provide the funeral for the Reverend Petrus John 5