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12 November 2009: Service Excellence - a truly inspiring story as told by a TEBA Limited employee in Lesotho.

“We left the office at 08:30 am on Wednesday morning. After traveling for several hours we left the vehicle at one of the villages named Mafokeng at 13h30 when the villagers advised that there was no way the vehicle could access or reach Khakhathane (our destination). We then climbed four mountains until 17h30 pm where ntate Kotsi, (who was walking about 20(?) km ahead of us), asked for directions once again. He was told that the vehicle could have driven to a village called Ha Tau. He asked the men from Tau to escort the Driver (Mr. Mosothoane) back to collect the vehicle and for one of them to escort him to the home of the bereaved family.

 

I should mention that when they left the village it was already getting dark and the mountain that they were supposed to climb was covered with snow and not easy to walk on as the wind made the snow freeze and the pathway became very slippery.

 

The cellular signal is also very weak in the mountains. We had agreed with ntate Kotsi that when he arrived at the village he would inform the chief of the death and who would then escort him to the home of the bereaved family where after they would come down the mountain so that we could personally inform the widow of the death of her husband.

 

At 20h45 I climbed one of the nearby mountains to search for a network signal, and had I had to put my cell-phone above my forehead and speak on loudspeaker as this was the only way the signal worked!   I managed to get through to ntate Kotsi who advised me that he hasd not yet reached the village, before being cut off.

 

Mr. Mosothane then arrived and we waited patiently in the vehicle for the rest of the freezing night.  Mr. Kotsi arrived with the widow and two family members at 07h30 the next day, but when they arrived the widow was in extreme pain as she had fallen on the frozen foot path in the darkness of the early morning hours.

 

It was not easy for me to disclose the message at that time as she was already complaining about her painful arm.  Due to the circumstances, I decided not to inform her until she had had a chance to relax.

 

When we arrived at Ketane I purchased pain killers for her and ointment to massage the arm. She cried more than ever with pain, but I persisted as she refused to go to the clinic for fear that they would hurt her. I managed to re-align her joint as I discovered that it was dislocated but not broken. We also had to wait for bread, which was in the shops oven, as we were all very hungry.  Holding her next to my chest she managed to have a nap.

 

On the way up the mountain we found a broken bus standing in the middle of the road.  The road was very narrow and the vehicles could not pass either way.  I then asked all the men (together with myself) to collect stones and build a by-pass so that we would be able to get past (we really had to get through as we were almost late for the Mine Officials who were waiting for us en-route to the mine).  We spent about an hour building up the road and through God's mercy we managed to pass. 

 

I then had to use another  alternative route, although I was not sure if it was going to work.  I asked one of the drivers that I met if the road to Mount Moorosi (crossing from the Senqu River next to Bethel Mission was accessible -  even though there was no bridge at all on that side), and he mentioned that it was “OK”.  Our driver was very scared but with all our help, assistance, guidance and prayers he crossed the river.

 

He then had  to make haste to arrive at the Passport office at Mount Moorosi before they went on their lunch break.

 

 

I arrived at the passport office and begged all the customers to allow us to get service before they could be assisted and the Border Officer listened to my story and assisted us. This was despite the fact that the widow’s passport had expired 2001. She was supposed to have filled in the forms from her chief which we did not have time to do because if we had waited, then ntate Kotsi and the widow could only have left the Chief's house at 09h00 and,due to the distance and the terrain between the two villages, only arriving at 12h30. We were assisted and the widow promised that on her way back from the mine she would call in at the TEBA Offcie to complete further documentation.

 

We left for Quthing; and now that all was at least at ease I broke the bad news to the widow.

 

As promised I also assisted the other person who was denied entry at the border at Van Rooyen's gate with accommodation at my house to over night en-route to his home, and we also gave him breakfast, lunch and transport fares.”