Imperial: Leaders in Mobility

In 2017, we embarked on a new approach to supplier development in partnership with the Awethu Project (Awethu), an investment company which manages equity funds to support the growth of small black businesses and the transformation of small white-owned businesses. Our intent is not only to transform our own supply chain in a sustainable manner, but to promote the Sinawe Fund to our clients to achieve transformation at scale in the transport and logistics sector.

Our part in this hybrid solution is to invest in the fund and provide specialist logistics mentorship for the participating small, micro and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs). In addition, our companies are required to support the integration of the SMMEs in their procurement processes and supply chains, where feasible. Awethu provides pre- and post-investment support customised to a beneficiary’s individual growth stages and development gaps.

Targeting fast-growing strategic suppliers with turnovers of less than R50 million, the fund has closed three deals with suppliers in our supply chain to date. Two suppliers are trucking businesses, one black women owned and the other white owned, and the third is a leading black women-owned supplier of tarpaulins that recently won a national tender with Imperial Logistics and requires capital to grow. The fund’s investment in the white-owned business will increase black ownership of the business to 51% by supporting a young black entrepreneur with the potential to succeed the owner in time.

The fund transforms what was once an expense item into a return generator as SMMEs with improved capacity and capability will deliver real and measurable improvements in supply chain efficiencies. As they grow, the SMMEs will also contribute to job creation. In addition, the fund will drive a pipeline of sustainable black SMMEs, which will boost our preferential procurement score as well as the preferential procurement scores of our clients, who will have access to the SMMEs’ service offerings. Together, these benefits will result in reasonable financial returns for Imperial Logistics, making the fund sustainable into the longer term.

Clients are also able to co-invest in the fund, supporting the development of their own SMME suppliers.

We monitor the progress of the funded SMMEs by reviewing their financial statements and tracking the number of jobs created. Where the SMME has acquired a new customer within Imperial Logistics, we evaluate performance and the benefits delivered through economies of scale.

The Unjani Clinics initiative, founded by Imperial Holdings, empowers black women professional nurses to own their own primary healthcare container clinic in their township or rural community. The clinics offer an alternative quality healthcare service to the employed but uninsured population (estimated between 10 and 12 million people), who are able to pay a small fee towards their healthcare needs. The initiative relieves some of the pressure on government facilities which are stretched and under-resourced. The clinics provide access to essential medicines and primary healthcare at the point of need, reducing the vast amounts of time and travel costs patients incur to receive attention at a state facility.

The model shifts primary healthcare tasks to professional nurses and leverages the highly developed private sector distribution network to ensure that more people have access to medicines. The project also creates an entrepreneurial opportunity for professional nurses and further employment opportunities are created by way of administration support staff, as well as cleaners and other service providers. Each clinic creates between three and five sustainable jobs.

Unjani Clinics NPC operates 49 clinics funded through the enterprise development spend from Imperial Logistics (the first 25 clinics), Johnson & Johnson (seven clinics), Rand Mutual Assurance (two clinics), Tiso AEL Development Trust (four clinics) and Pfizer South Africa (two clinics). Working with National Treasury’s Job Fund and our corporate partners, our interim goal is to increase the network of clinics to 70 by December 2019. To date, the Jobs Fund has funded nine clinics.

During the year, 21 clinics were opened and the network’s reach now includes the Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West provinces. Two clinics were closed due to non-compliance by the nurses and the infrastructure used elsewhere. One of the original clinics ‘graduated’ to an independent nursing practice, operating outside the network and demonstrating the sustainability of the model. In the next financial year, 10 clinics will be opened in KwaZulu-Natal and seven in the Eastern Cape.

Professional nurses and clinic assistants receive an operating manual, three days of training on basic business management and ongoing mentoring guidance to ensure their success. We apply strict criteria to the selection of nurses who must comply with our five-year enterprise development agreement which covers patient confidentiality, compliance with health regulations and legislation, and the responsible use of products.

Compliance is monitored through operational and financial audits. A patient management system across the network facilitates administrative reporting, patient data tracking and measurement of healthcare outcomes. The real-time dashboards help Unjani Clinics NPC manage the clinics from a central point and deal with operational issues more effectively.

Advancing the service offering of the Unjani Clinics

During the past year, we gathered funding momentum in terms of the Unjani Clinics initiative with a number of corporates supporting the expansion of the services offered to patients.

The Pfizer Foundation and Pfizer South Africa funded basic ultra sound equipment for 38 clinics and provided training to the nurses. An average of 600 ultra sounds are performed monthly by these clinics. In the next financial year, the service will be extended to the remaining clinics in the network.

The Johnson’s baby healthy skin programme provided nurses with skin care training and provided free consultation vouchers to mothers unable to afford an Unjani Clinic visit. Approximately 2 000 vouchers have been redeemed to date.

Since 2016, Unjani Clinics NPC has partnered with local Departments of Health in the Extended Programme for Immunisation (EPI) to reduce childhood diseases. To ensure that the efficacy of vaccines and medicines is maintained, Unjani Clinics has partnered with Zero Medical (medical refrigerator supplier) and Johnson & Johnson (funder) to provide all clinics with new Sure Chill fridges equipped with World Health Organisation (WHO) approved cold chain technology. The fridges maintain a temperature of between two and eight degrees for up to five days, requiring just a few hours of power per day and reducing their reliance on electricity. The fridges installed in the clinics in Hammanskraal, Kathu and Musina where there is no electricity supply, operate with solar power even at low light intensity and require no batteries for energy storage.

Up to now, the project’s main contribution to the fight against HIV/Aids has been providing screening and pre- and post-test counselling followed by a referral to a state facility for treatment. We believe that the Unjani Clinics network has the potential to make a more powerful impact on the HIV/Aids crisis. We are engaging with government to extend our role to providing free antiretroviral treatment for state patients. This would mean that we could test a patient and initiate treatment immediately and act as a pick-up point for future medication.

Together with global donors and aid organisations, the Unjani Clinics outreach campaigns set up temporary HIV/Aids testing stations in the communities and have tested more than 25 000 people to date.

Trucking wellness programme

The trucking wellness programme is a primary healthcare initiative run by the National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight and Logistics Industry (NBCRFLI). It operates 21 permanent roadside wellness centres along major routes, as well as a fleet of 15 mobile wellness centres that travel across the country to visit road freight companies. Visitors can access basic medical assistance and other support from registered nurses and counsellors. The centres are helping to diminish the impact of HIV/Aids on individuals, families and communities in the road freight industry.

In addition to the R7 million employer contribution to the NBCRFLI’s Wellness Fund Health Plan, we sponsor two permanent roadside centres (2017: four). The centres operate mostly at night, which is the most convenient and accessible time for long-distance truck drivers, and wellness services are available to truck drivers, their partners, commercial sex workers and the broader community.

During the year, the project delivered training to its employees and introduced an electronic patient management system to enhance its service delivery.

For more information on employee wellbeing, see ensuring the wellbeing of our employees.