15 Jun 2026

The Assistant Minister of Trade and Entrepreneurship Mr Baratiwa Mathoothe says the Hatshe Lentle Multi-Purpose Cooperative will provide members the much needed bargaining power in the market. 

When officially launching the cooperative in Good Hope on June 12, he said members would secure better prices for their products when they buy or sell collectively as a unit.

Mr Mathoothe said the initiative would unite people under one goal of economic empowerment through cooperation and production. The assistant minister said government strongly believed in people taking charge of their economic future through shared opportunity and collective efforts.

He further said with the formation of a cooperative, members would have a collective voice that spoke loudly to both suppliers and customers. 

“This is how the cooperatives level the playing field to ensure that even the smallest trader, farmer and entrepreneur have access to the market that would otherwise be out of reach”, he said.

He urged members to familiarise themselves with the cooperative philosophy, its principles and values. Mr Mathoothe said this would cause every member to develop a sense of ownership and responsibility. 

Furthermore, he urged members to develop a sense of transparency and openness in all their dealings, saying accountability to members was non-negotiable. 

He warned that running a community-based cooperative came with its own unique challenges and as such, it required unwavering member commitment, active patronage and dedication. The assistant minister said without a robust strategy and with members spread across the district, villages may work in isolation rather than as one united cooperative. 

He also emphasised that no compromise should be taken on key competencies, financial acumen and governance expertise. “I urge the cooperative to ensure that the constituency moves from subsistence farming and start taking agriculture as a business,” he said.

For his part the patron of Hatshe Lentle Multi-purpose cooperative, Dr Edwin Dikoloti also Minister of Lands and Agriculture said with the formation of the cooperative, people had chosen cooperation over isolation, shared prosperity and long-term development over short term survival.

He pointed out that the cooperative was a wheel of revival for farmers, youth, women and communities choosing to take ownership of their economic future. 

Dr Dikoloti, who is also the Member of Parliament for Good Hope/Mmathethe said the cooperative would be an answer to the burden carried by farmers of failed markets.

He concurred that it would create shared strength and allow small producers to negotiate like large producers, open access to different markets, financing and agro-processing opportunities that individuals could never access alone.

“Hatshe-Lentle Multi-purpose cooperative will also focus on processing, branding, packaging, distribution, storage and market access”, he said. ENDS