President Jacob Zuma, spoke at the International Cooperatives Day celebration, in Bloemfontein, on Saturday. He was joined by Minister of Small Business Development, Lindiwe Zulu, and Free State Premier, Ace Magashula, amongst others to address plans for the future of cooperative businesses around the country. The event took place at Old Grey Sports Club, on Saturday afternoon and was attended by members of various cooperative businesses, around the country.
According to Zuma, it is up to the government to show people the importance of cooperatives by promoting them. The president encouraged government departments to buy goods and services from cooperatives. “Without such practical support we would not achieve our goal of providing economic empowerment to our people especially, women in the townships and villages of our country. Together we must ensure that cooperatives have access to markets and that they benefit from state and private sector procurements,” explains Zuma.
He also highlighted the importance of female participation in cooperatives in order to alleviate poverty. “We have also seen great success of cooperatives run by women in various communities. Our government runs a school nutrition scheme feeding over nine million children daily. The government procures vegetables and other food stuffs from many women’s cooperatives in many instances,” says Zuma.
According to Zuma, female owned cooperatives have received over 35 million in funds from the Department of Small Business Development, in the past year. This amount makes up over 50% of the department’s cooperative’s incentive scheme. According to the president, with these funds the female owned and led businesses were able to buy farming, sewing, and events management equipment.
The industrialisation of South African industries was a major topic at the event. According to the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) Lomkhosi Gama, an international strategy was created to address challenges of trade and processing raw materials in the region. The organisation aims to turn Southern Africa into a producer of processed products not just an exporter of raw materials.
Ann Ngutshane of National Apex Cooperative of South Africa (NACSA) had an optimistic view of the future of South African industries. “We talked at length about what needs to happen in order for us to be in manufacturing and to industrialise South Africa. In fact we are saying we are very bold as cooperatives because we are going to create the fourth industrial revolution, in South Africa by cooperatives,” explains Ngutshane.
– Nomaqhawe Mtebele / OFM NEWS
