Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform deputy minister, Zoleka Capa, has told delegates at the two-day Co-Operative Summit, hosted by the King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) Local Municipality, to place co-ops at the centre of rural and local economic development.
Capa was addressing the summit held at Mthatha Stadium, on April 19 and 20, on the role of co-ops in rural development.
She further stressed the need for co-operatives to exploit natural resources that the KSD municipality is endowed with, such as forests and land for agricultural purposes, for rural development purposes.
The two-day summit was hosted to improve alignment in co-operative development initiatives by various spheres of government and support institutions and support the establishment of co-ops to uplift projects in rural areas, as well as to secure working resources and investments into agricultural food security, tourism, and creative industry in KSD, to identify areas where investment is needed and critical paths for growth.
“The summit was hosted to take stock of the work that was done before by the municipality to support co-ops in our jurisdiction, as well as to map a way forward on best practices to nurture them as an asset to ignite economic activity,” said the KSD executive mayor during his opening address.
Nelani added that only five percent of what KSD municipality citizens were consuming is produced within the municipality and they wanted co-operatives to be at the centre of changing the trajectory.
He further encouraged co-operatives to take advantage of under-utilised resources such as Kei Fresh Produce, the Abattoir, and the Mqanduli milling plant which, according to him, are assets that were designed to ignite the local economy.
He also mentioned the KSD municipality’s intentions to develop into a metropolitan municipality to create employment and economic prospects.
The summit also received inputs from entities such as the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA), Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) and the South African Revenue Services, among others.
