09 Apr 2014

Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Keletso Rakhudu has called for the creation of new profitable cooperatives.

Speaking during the Cooperatives Transformation Strategy meeting for the Department of Cooperative Development held in Palapye on April 8, Mr Rakhudu said creation of new cooperatives would show that the Cooperatives Transformation Strategy developed by government in 2011 was implemented and successful.

“For us to implement the strategy, we should think differently, we must create our own winning cooperatives,” he said.

The strategy was developed in 2011 with a view to resuscitate, revamp and re-direct the development of cooperatives into competitive businesses. The strategy will implement eight cooperatives strategic transformation pillars, namely cooperatives branding, growth pillars and linkages, cooperatives environment for doing business, financing and insurance, youth participation in cooperatives, mindset change, corporate governance and member participation and commitment.

Mr Rakhudu, who is the former Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry, however, raised concern over lack of implementation of the strategy by the Department of Cooperative Development officials, saying that failure to implement the strategy meant that the ministry was losing credibility.

“If we are losing credibility, it means people are no longer listening to us.” Mr Rakhudu asked officials from the Ministry of Trade what they had done since the development of the transformation strategy to improve cooperatives in areas they were manning.

He said he was aware that cooperatives were posing a challenge because they were in the private sector domain. However, he said more could still be done to make cooperatives thriving businesses.

He said this could be achieved by understanding the transformation strategy itself, adding “if you fail to implement the strategy, it means that you do not understand it.”

He said if officials understood the strategy, they would not be struggling to implement it. The idea behind the strategy was to make cooperatives vibrant, competitive and profitable. In addition, Mr Rakhudu raised concern over the Department of Cooperative Development logo saying that it should be revitalised. He said branding is one of the pillars inscribed in the strategy and therefore, the department should start with re-designing its logo. He said the logo had been used for a long time as such needed to be revitalised.

For her part, the Director of Cooperatives, Ms Ontlametse Ward thanked Mr Rakhudu for inspiring her team. She said she and her team will do their best to implement the strategy and transform cooperatives. ENDS