Programme Director

Members of the Executive Council,

Mayors and Councillors,

The President and leadership of SANACO,

Senior Government Officials across all spheres;

Distinguished guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

I am honoured and privileged to be part of this momentous occasion. During this International Co-operative Day, we must intensify public awareness about the crucial role that co-operatives play in the development of our communities. We must utilise this day to mobilise the entire society to appreciate the critical importance of co-operatives in fostering sustainable livelihoods and pushing back the frontiers of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

On this important day, let us send a loud and unequivocal message that co-operatives hold some of the answers to the pressing socio-economic challenges that confront us. The triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality that stubbornly stare all of us in the face, require men and women of courage and resolve.

In 1995, the United Nations resolved to officially designate the first week of July as a period to celebrate the International Day of Cooperatives. Since, then, all signatories to the International Labour Organisation Recommendation 193 committed themselves to celebrate and recognise the role that cooperatives play in the social and economic development of their respective countries. International Cooperative Day offers us a unique opportunity to strengthen and extend partnerships between government and the international co-operative movement, as well as other stakeholders.

This year’s theme, “Corporative enterprises empower women”, government wants to emphasise the strategic importance that women play in the economic development of our country. Cooperatives as a resilient form of business enables women to easily access business and work opportunities, raise savings and extend education and training not only to them, but also to the local communities in which they are operating. 

Ladies and gentlemen, one of the most striking things about South Africans that continues to confound critic and admirer alike, continues to be our incredible capacity as a nation to rise everyday to defeat despair and steadfastly refuse to be passive participants in the process of rebuilding our country. And the co-operatives are an example of this spirit of vuk’uzenzele. Cooperatives by their very nature are about initiative and self-reliance.

1994 liberated many of our people from a culture of passive submission to a culture of v’ukuzenzele. Many of our successful co-operatives are an example of how much we can achieve if we seize the opportunities brought by our democracy and freedom to create a better life for themselves and their fellow citizens. 1994 gave our people a passport to take control of their lives and responsibility for their destiny. It presented an opportunity for us to rigorously lay the foundation for building a new nation. It was an opportunity for us, in our different sectors of human endeavour, to collectively build for ourselves a future that is qualitatively better than our ugly past.

We have a responsibility to take our destiny into our own hands. We can no longer rely on the outside world. The world dynamics have changed. The world has moved on. Those who previously saw us a child that needed to be supported and nurtured now see us as their competitors. The world is not waiting for us. We must take the initiative and move very fast. The world is not waiting for us!

The co-operatives whose work we are also celebrating this weekend have refused to be passive spectators in the ongoing reconstruction and development of our country. Instead, they consciously chose to dirty their hands, rather than pontificate from the pulpit; to contribute rather to complain and criticize from the sidelines; to make mistakes and rise up again in the course of creating a better life for themselves and their fellow citizens.

Co-operatives are at the centre of the much-needed village and township economic revival. With the support of government, we must ensure that the services and goods consumed in townships and villages are produced by men and women from those townships and villages. My new Ministry has been charged with the responsibility to create an enabling environment for the development and growth of co-operatives.

Since the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and UN resolutions, cooperatives around the world have been celebrating the International Day of Cooperatives in many ways. After South Africa became one of the signatories to the ILO Recommendation 193, committing it to the promotion and development of cooperatives, the country started celebrating International Day of Cooperatives in 2006. This has continued to this day.

This year, we have chosen to celebrate this significant occasion by providing a platform to 50 co-operatives to exhibit and showcase their products and services. In the true spirit of letsema and vukúzenzele, these co-operatives never started with the question: “What will our government do for us?” Instead, they posed the most fundamental question: “What can we do to create a better life for ourselves and our fellow compatriots?” As we mark International Co-operative Day, we are also celebrating this spirit of taking initiative as well as the contribution that co-operatives continue to make in the upliftment of our communities.

As Roberto Rodriguez reminds us: “The greatest enemies of peace are social exclusion and concentration of wealth worldwide. Co-operatives not only prevent this, but they empower a billion of people economically both directly and indirectly and as result should be regarded as defenders of peace”. Indeed, the top 300 co-operative enterprises constitute the 9^th largest economy in the world and they operate in some of the most competitive industries such as banking, insurance, agriculture, retail, health, utilities and others. These top 300 enterprises altogether are worth 1.6 trillion US dollars.

During the global financial crisis which was characterized by massive public bailouts of private, investor-owned banks worldwide, co-operative banks in the form of credit unions and building societies displayed prudence by the manner in which they have primarily focused on the needs of their members and avoiding excessive risk taking. Whilst commercial banks went through difficulty and in many instances had to rely on bailouts, co-operatives banks remained stable.

Cooperatives are by their very nature a means by which social businesses and enterprises are created. Cooperatives are catalysts for economic growth and sustainable development for disadvantaged, vulnerable, and marginalised groups as well as those with limited resource capabilities. Local and international experience shows that the sustainability of these enterprises contributes to poverty alleviation, giving poor people the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty and its associated forms of deprivation. Cooperatives contribute to the empowerment of poor and marginalised people.

While a lot of progress has been made in the area of cooperatives development and growth, there are still challenges that need to be addressed. Among these challenges are: the lack of adequate economic and social impact statistics on co-operatives covering all sectors; and poor appreciation of the co-operatives business model by the public. Financial and non-financial support given to co-operatives still remains scattered thus making it difficult for co-operatives to effectively access such support easier and much quicker on a wider scale. We are determined to address these challenges. As part of strengthening co-operatives, the Ministry of Small Business Development will focus on creating an enabling environment for the development and growth of cooperatives in South Africa.

I have been informed that delegates had a discussion on the subject of a single Apex Body. I am convinced that you will continue with efforts to harness your collective wisdom to see this body to fruition. Government recognizes that cooperative development cannot be fully achieved by government alone. All our national partners must play their part in promoting co-operative development.

I am pleased to note that our provincial and local government partners are actively supporting the development of cooperatives. The new Ministry stands ready to work with all stakeholders to take the cooperative movement forward. We will do this as part of the government’s commitment to set the country on a path of radical economic transformation in order to accelerate our onslaught on the triple challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment.

We have no doubt that the much-needed economic growth and employment opportunities will come from a radical policy that enables co-operatives and small businesses to thrive and grow into profitable enterprises. We are confident that this intervention will help unlock economic opportunities and thus promote inclusive economic growth and sustainable employment, particularly for women, youth and people with people with disabilities.

I thank you