AVBOB Integrated Annual Report 2018

Masango, archbishop of the St. John Apostolic Church of South Africa. The ceremony was attended by 40 000 mourners. It was a dark day when, in 1995, AVBOB conducted the mass funeral of 104 mineworkers tragically killed in the Orkney mining disaster. But AVBOB honoured its obligations and exceeded expectations. And these are some of the reasons why AVBOB is such a unique organisation. We are often the rst port of call when a loved one is lost. Few organisations can claim to be so rmly cemented in the national psyche. AVBOB sees itself as a family, and the AVBOB of today is a blueprint for how the entire South African population should be served, to ensure there is the utmost dignity on the day that each of us – inevitably – is interred. AVBOB has been involved in the funeral of every head of state and with the passing of former president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela on 5 December 2013 at the venerable age of 95, the full institutional and professional expertise of AVBOB came into force. Every last detail was meticulously planned and executed to ensure a tting send- off for this beloved global icon. At the close of the state funeral on that Sunday afternoon, the AVBOB team unanimously agreed that the Madiba funeral had been the biggest honour ever to befall them. AVBOB and Madiba were born in the same year, and their paths had nally crossed. AVBOB’s path has taken it far and wide. We deliver on our brand promise, ‘We’re here for you’, by investing in communities across South Africa through our support of literacy and education. The establishment of the AVBOB Foundation in 2012 bolstered this promise. For when AVBOB speaks of ‘family’, the circle of responsibility and care spreads far wider than our policyholders and members. With the launch of our Container Library Project in 2013, AVBOB committed to and delivered 50 fully-stocked libraries to underprivileged schools in South Africa. Along with this, on Mandela Day 2017, AVBOB, in collaboration with the Department of Basic Education, announced an investment of R150 million in the AVBOB Schools Infrastructure Project, to upgrade nine underprivileged primary schools. This is the largest investment in education made by a single organisation in the history of South Africa. Once again, this is due to the fact that AVBOB is a philanthropic brand that believes in serving the needs of our nation, needs that extend beyond our core purpose as a provider of funerals and funeral insurance. It’s why AVBOB became a mutual assurance society in 1951, and why it has fought to remain so to this day. As a mutual, AVBOB has no external shareholders who receive dividends. Over the years, AVBOB has allocated billions of rands to our members in the form of special bonuses and free funeral bene ts. On 15 August 2018, in our centenary year, we have allocated the single largest special bonus of R3.5 billion to our members.This demonstrates our ability to empower our members and enable economic participation. This mutual status weaves a golden thread from AVBOB’s founding moment back in 1918, to our current status as a household name. But earning a reputation as a household name is not always enough to guarantee growth. While AVBOB is seen as the custodian of a timeless ritual, we have always stayed in step with contemporary trends and innovations. AVBOB supports over 320 branches, close to 8 000 staff members, and hundreds of business partners. In the tagline of the 1930s, AVBOB is truly ‘everywhere’. All this growth, from business expansion to new-generation digitalisation, has been consolidated under, and integrated into the One AVBOB principle, conceived by current CEO, Frik Rademan, to deliver a uniform experience to all South Africans. In July 2017, in a truly unorthodox move, AVBOB announced a nationwide online poetry competition in all 11 of cial languages, open to all South Africans, with usage payments awarded to all poems published on the competition website (www.avbobpoetry. co.za) . A cash prize of R10 000 plus a book voucher of 2017 AVBOB Poetry Project winners. Madiba’s nal resting place in Qunu, Eastern Cape. 6