the company
Background and History
INTERCAPE is essentially a family business, founded by the late Mr. Johan Ferreira in 1979. It is a major national road passenger carrier with its headquarters close to Cape Town International Airport. The first sign of late Mr. Johan Ferreira’s entrepreneurial vision was in the early 1950’s when, as a teacher, he supplemented his income by driving the school bus. By 1955, he’d ferried children across the country to sports events and then acquired his own new bus in 1970.
This led to the launch of his passenger transport business, “Windhoek Busdiens”, in April 1970. He was the first operator to transport so-called coloured and black passengers with a "whites only" permit, at that time. A series of fortunate contracts, including carrying a flood of refugees from Angola, further set the late Mr Johan Ferreira on the path towards building this country’s leading long distance road passenger carrier.
The company, renamed INTERCAPE, officially opened its routes in July 1979. Moving to Cape Town, Mr Johan Ferreira made a quantum leap forward by securing permits for the Cape Town to Port Elizabeth route during July 1986. Mr Johann Jr joined the company in 1986. It is currently operating on all major routes in South Africa.
In this service orientated industry, INTERCAPE started its own Training Centre in Cape Town in order to ensure the standard and quality of all INTERCAPE Mainliner staff. This accredited facility is also used by outside companies.
Intercape also has the largest infrastructure in the intercity industry to support its networks with offices and support depots in the following cities and countries: Windhoek: Namibia, Maputo: Mozambique, Gaberone: Botswanna, South Africa: Upington, Cape Town, Mosselbay, George, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Johannesburg, Nelspruit, Pretoria and Bloemfontein.
INTERCAPE currently operates 38 daily departures, utilizing a fleet of 61 coaches consisting of 49 luxury double deck couches and 15 single deck coaches, with a permanent staff complement of 372 in South Africa, 47 in Namibia, 8 in Botswana and 9 in Mozambique.
On 24 October 2008 Mr Johann Jr purchased 100% of the shares of the company. Under the new leadership, Intercape Mainliner now promotes the Christian Faith in an active way to its clients and to all nations it carries. As the world finds itself in more and more turmoil, Intercape and its owner believe that the world needs to focus on God to restore the land.
