REFILWE MEKOA
The Free State acting Head of Skills Development, Victor Duma, says the aim of the Cooperative Movement programme is to empower the community and businesses.
The various cooperatives that were subcontracted by the government will be insourced. Duma says the Department of Health spends 48 million per annum on private companies for paying cleaning services, security and other additional work the department needs.
“We did a study of the impact of the cooperatives, the way they function and sustainability. Some of the issues that made some cooperatives collapse were the way the businesses were managed and that they didn’t have a marketing structure and income. A lot of governmental departments are still holding month-to-month contracts with many service providers which is a problem. Once the contract has lapsed there has to be new people that will be appointed,” he says.
Duma says the implementation plan of the cooperative movement programme will start on 1 July and will focus on hospitals, old-age homes and juvenile secure centres to decrease the unemployment rate. He says the government has trained 1268 security officers who are currently unemployed and the cooperative way will help them.
“We want to change things around where we say cooperatives must be informed and be in control of their companies,” Duma says.
