200 Cooperatives Train to Succeed in Business

Port Elizabeth - Making money while serving their communities is the goal of 200 cooperatives in Nelson Mandela Bay that receive training at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Business School's Cooperative Development Centre (CDC) in Missionvale.

Recent CDC graduates Salt of the World, a health and wellness cooperative consisting of 15 members, is a perfect example of this. The cooperative registered last year and the members work for free doing home-based caring for the sick and elderly and also offering cleaning and vegetable gardening services to schools in Kwazakhele.

NMMU Business School project coordinator Kavita Govindjee said: "The cooperatives serve [their] communities on a voluntary basis ... The final goal is to turn the cooperatives into sustainable business entities."

The CDC helps cooperatives to register themselves, and offers regular workshops and networking sessions as well as formal training sessions at NQF4 level.

The Business School acts as an implementing agent for the CDC, and MBA students interview and do research on the cooperatives as case studies for their treatises.

This research is presented to the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, which sponsors the CDC and recently renewed its contract with the Business School to continue their cooperative development over the next three years. The first contract between the municipality and university was entered into in 2010, when the CDC was launched.

Source: The Herald, 6 December 2013