Develop and Strengthen Cooperatives

Project Summary
In an effort to address a structurally imbedded colonial and apartheid legacy of social and economic inequality and exclusion, the post-1994 South African government has sought to deepen its conceptions of a developmental state, its defining features and sensibilities, as well as the kinds of policy and programming stances optimally geared to deliver on its promise. Towards this end, a number of enabling legislative frameworks have been enacted. A number of programmes have also been initiated to give expression to, and test out the relevance and efficacy of the legislation. One among this legislation is the Co-operatives Act No. 14 of 2005, as well as a couple of other related legislation meant to open up new spaces for broadened participation in the new democracy’s political economy – for instance, the Public Preferential Procurement Framework Act (PPPFA, now under review) and the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act (BBBEE, 2003).
For economically disempowered people co-operatives are especially appropriate because they: -
• Are often the only available effective means for increasing their economic and social wellbeing. It provides better control of their economic conditions.
• Combine resources, however limited, so that these become operationally effective.
• Manage common resources efficiently.
• Ensure that returns accrue to member-owners, remain under their joint control and are used primarily for reinvestment in communities.
• Establish formal legal status, thereby protecting common assets and facilitating operation in the formal market.

The envisaged project shall focus on the following imperatives
a. Training on different co-operatives
b. Registration of co-operatives
c. In- service training
d. Advocacy and Awareness raising
e. Applied research and development of the co-operatives movement;
f. Provisioning of Adult Basic Education and Training

The project will develop partnerships and cooperation amongst cooperatives nationally and internationally; this will include the facilitation of dialogue for conscientizing the public, private sector and other community enterprises. It will also gather and disseminate Information, such as cooperative Act, new developments on the cooperative movement and to promote the establishment of the national cooperative association etc.