EXAMINATION OF CO-OPERATIVES AS A SUCCESSFUL

Abstract

South Africa like many other countries is faced with a serious problem of unemployment and efforts to address this challenge do not always yield positive results. Co-operatives have been identified as one of the vehicles that can create jobs and therefore sustain livelihoods of the poor. The purpose of this research was to examine the complex reasons for challenges faced by co-operatives and investigate how to improve the opportunities of implementation of co-operatives as a policy intervention for job creation. Basic interpretive qualitative study was undertaken through in-depth interviews and secondary sources. Two worker co-operatives were selected in Gauteng Province to collate data and provide more evidence. The research found that the concept of co-operative is still not understood and that the legislative framework needs to be popularised for participants to capitalise on the benefits of the programme. A number of challenges have been identified that prohibit success of co-operatives, with lack of skills, lack of resources and lack of markets as major constraints to sustainability of co-operatives. The research concludes that partnership between all stakeholders and social networks is critical with government taking a leading role, since a collaborative effort is needed to capacitate co-operatives to ensure their success in creating jobs for the poor. The recommendations include education and awareness on the legislation, business and technical skills as most participants have no prior business experience and would need mentoring and coaching by experts in the field to operate like fully-fledged businesses. Finally, monitoring and evaluation systems should be put in place to manage the data and to measure impact of the programme