Deputy Speaker, Deputy President and hon members, it is a great pleasure to me to commend to the House the Co- operatives Amendment Bill, which is an amalgamation of two amendment Bills that were introduced earlier this year. The Bill before the House broadly aims to achieve three main objectives.
Firstly, it aims to enhance governance and accountability within co- operatives, while simultaneously introducing a differentiated system of compliance that reduces the regulatory burden, particularly on small co- operatives. Secondly, the Bill introduces provisions to establish new structures, and in particular a national apex co-operative body in South Africa. Thirdly, the Bill will establish co-operative-specific support institutions so that government can dedicate support to co-operatives, born of the realisation that the defining principle of co-operatives is that they are collective forms of enterprise and we should not treat them as we have done up to now, simply as a subset of small business.
The Bill significantly embraces seven internationally endorsed principles for the operation of co-operatives. These are the principles of voluntary and open membership, of democratic member control, of member economic participation, of autonomy and independence, of education, training and information, of co-operation among co-operatives, and of concern for community. These principles are entrenched in the Bill.
The Bill seeks to strengthen governance and accountability within co- operatives through making it mandatory for co-operatives to submit annual financial reports, social and management decision reports, and so on, to the registrar. This refinement will enhance accountability and transparency by the broad management of co-operatives towards the members of co- operatives. It will also strengthen decision-making within co-operatives on a democratic basis, and thereby hopefully reduce conflicts within co- operatives and improve their sustainability.
The Bill, however, provides for a differentiated categorisation of co- operatives into survivalist and very small primary co-operatives, small to medium co-operatives, and then larger co-operatives. It differentiates the reporting and regulatory requirements according to the size of the co- operatives. The Bill also significantly seeks to address an abuse which has been noted, where pseudo co-operatives are established as a means of evading labour law. The Bill stipulates that worker co-operatives must comply with labour legislation. However, it does allow for an exemption to be made through regulation on specified conditions.
The second point I made was that the Bill will establish, in addition to primary, secondary and tertiary co-operatives, another structure, which will be known as the National Apex Co-operative for South Africa. The South African National Apex Co-operative will unite co-operatives and provide advocacy on behalf of co-operatives as a united national co-operative movement.
The National Apex Co-Operative will be established when a minimum of three national sectoral tertiary co-operatives and five multisectoral co- operatives representing co-operatives at provincial, district and local level come together and apply for recognition as an apex co-operative. This apex body will represent South African co-operatives at both national and international levels - at the international level in organisations such as the International Co-operative Alliance and various regional and continental bodies.
Deputy Speaker, with respect to the Co-operatives Development Agency and the Co-operatives Tribunal, which are the new co-operatives-specific institutions, these have been established because, as I said earlier, the problem we have identified is that we have treated co-operatives and co- operative development as a subset of small business development, whereas the essence of a co-operative is that it is a collective form of enterprise. It may be large or it may be small, but it has particular and unique principles.
The Bill is now providing for the establishment of a Co-operatives Development Agency. This will operate as a one-stop shop. In other words, it will provide both financial and nonfinancial support for co-operatives. It will include business support services and will assist with access to information. It will facilitate market access, both locally and internationally. It will also provide such services as education, training, extension services and market intelligence.
Whilst this agency is co-operative-specific, we do not intend it to be created as a vast new bureaucracy. In practice, in fact, to begin with at least, it will use the network of the Small Enterprise Development Agency around the country, whilst providing a co-operative-specific service.
There will also be the establishment of a Co-operatives Tribunal. This will ensure compliance with legislative requirements. It will assist in matters like judicial management, and the winding up and deregistration of co- operatives.
Very importantly, it will also deal with conflict resolution matters. Quite often co-operatives are bedevilled by disputes between the co-operators. The tribunal will be able to adjudicate on matters of this sort and will hopefully be able to resolve a number of conflicts which have bedevilled the roll-out of co-operatives.
There will also, very significantly, be the creation of an Interdepartmental and Municipal Co-Ordinating Structure, so that what we can do is co-ordinate the efforts of the different spheres of government, and the different agencies involved in the different spheres of government, to support co-operatives.
Deputy Speaker, this is the gist of the Bill. If we look at the economic rationale behind this legislation, we see that at the moment in South Africa we have 58 642 registered co-operatives. Over the period between 2006 and 2011 we rolled out about R150 million worth of support for co- operatives. These co-operatives, combined, contribute about 2% to the GDP of South Africa.
I think the report resulting from the visit to Kenya indicates that many other countries, including other countries on this continent, are able to sustain and support much more significant co-operative sectors than we have in South Africa. There are many parts of our economy which are very susceptible to co-operative development.
The example which comes out of Kenya, among other places, is agroprocessing, where agricultural producers come together because they can more effectively, by pooling resources and skills, add value to their agricultural products through agroprocessing ventures through a co- operative structure, than they can on their own.
There are also examples, even in our own history, where many white farmers came together and formed winemaking co-operatives which became very significant enterprises in their own right. Many other examples of co- operatives in other manufacturing sectors could also be cited.
When we go and see exhibitions of what co-operators are producing in this country, it is an eye opener if you have never been there and seen this before. You see how many cases of small groups of people there are who come together and manage to produce high quality goods and products around the country, and it shows us what can be achieved in this regard.
We believe that this Bill will be a strong statement that we as a department are intending to up our game in regard to support for co- operatives in this country, and that we also see much more significant potential for co-operative roll-out as we move ahead.
We have already, of course, approached Treasury to seek a budget for this, and we trust that when the Budget is tabled in Parliament next year, we will see a significant support programme for co-operative development.
I have no hesitation whatsoever in commending this Bill, which I believe has commanded broad support within the portfolio committee. I want to thank the portfolio committee for the work that they have done. I want to thank the Nedlac constituencies for the important work which they did in developing the framework, and we look forward to a strengthened co- operative programme in this country. Thank you very much. [Applause.]