Abstract:
There are clearly commendable objectives for supporting and establishing co-operatives.
These include worker control and empowerment, better access to finance, informal learning,
and collective marketing. Despite this, the literature consulted pointed to the following:
Earnings can be low or negligible;
Access to supermarkets or non-local markets is a challenge;
Co-operative structures can lead to internal conflict;
Grant dependency can undermine sustainability and delink reward from
productivity and quality;
Consideration of suitable support advisors and models that encourages SME to
link into higher marketing opportunities would be advantageous;
2
Since the members of a secondary co‐operative are the primary co‐operatives, the 15% maximum
vote by a member (a primary co‐operative) in fact requires that a secondary co‐operative should comprise of
at least 7 primary co‐operatives. This anomaly was only corrected by The Co‐operatives Amendment Act (Act
6 of 2013). 3
Sources consulted are listed in report 1
User co-operatives should also be considered; and
Alternative enterprise forms may be more suitable than co-operatives in some
instances.