The Department of Trade and Industry (the DTI) will assist the community of the Giyani village of Xihosana to establish four cooperatives before the end of the year in order to help them create employment and eradicate poverty. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Elizabeth Thabethe. She was speaking to members of the various community structures at an event hosted by the DTI at the Healing Ministry Church yesterday.
The event was part of the needs analysis exercise aimed at determining possible interventions by government departments to lift the community from the clutches of poverty.
It also provided Deputy Minister Thabethe with an opportunity to interact with community members and listen to them as they outlined the various socio-economic challenges that they are facing. These included the high rate of unemployment, teenage pregnancies, women and child abuse, substance abuse and crime.
“Officials from the DTI’s Gender and Women Empowerment Unit visited this area and found that poverty is rife and women and children were bearing most of the brunt associated with poverty. We have decided that we should come here during the Women’s Month and hear the challenges that the women of this community are battling with,” said Thabethe.
She announced that the DTI will be playing a role to empower the women of Xihosana village so that they can contribute to the economy and be able to stand for themselves.
“We will be assisting you to establish four cooperatives mainly for women and the young people in the village in order to ensure that you create employment for yourselves and the youth. We believe that this will go a long way in changing your life for the better, eradicate poverty and ensure that teenage pregnancies, drug abuse and women abuse are all dealt with effectively,” said Thabethe.
She explained that she viewed cooperatives as the most appropriate form of enterprises for the immediate empowerment of the Xihosana villagers because members of the community will group themselves and work together to produce something that they can be able to sell and to earn a living. In this way, a large section of the community will be economically active and productive at the same time, instead of people establishing individual business enterprises.
Thabethe said officials from the DTI would soon be starting to work with the Xihosana community in identifying projects that could be turned into cooperatives. Members of the cooperatives will be trained on various aspects of running business enterprises. The cooperatives will also be assisted to access funding from the DTI and other government institutions.
Thabethe also promised to take the concerns that residents raised about issues that do not fall within the mandate of the DTI to the relevant ministries. These include water, social grants and roads.
The event was part of the initiative that is aimed at ensuring that activism against the abuse of women and children continues beyond the 16 Days of Activism of No Violence Against Women and Children campaign period.
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe, departmental spokesperson
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
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