Co-operatives Urged To Change Business Strategy
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Monday August 28, 2017 16:45
The councillors were making their contributions after a presentation by the Department of Co-operatives Development recently to the Tonota Sub-District Council session recently.
From Tonota Central, Councillor Chris Machokoto said there is clear evidence that more co-operatives are failing due to under-performance and poor management.
He said that most of the co-operatives could not penetrate the market due to high competition from established local and transnational retailers.
He said that co-operatives should remodel their business strategies of operating as retailers and endeavour in manufacturing and agricultural trading.
Machokoto also said that officials should work with co-operatives by re-branding and developing new marketing strategies.
“Tonota Co-operative is one of the enterprises which are not functioning but have a lot of assets. You should convince the co-operatives to utilise their resources through joint ventures,” he said.
Tonota East councillor, Thatayaone Moreng said that Batswana are incapable of running co-operatives because they want to work as individuals as opposed to partners.
He said that some of the co-operatives fail because they face tough competition from well-established businesses such as Choppies. Moreng said that Batswana should manufacture new products with higher demand on the market, which could attract more consumers and generate a lot of income.
Majana ward councillor Jerry Frenzel said co-operatives are “completely doomed” and even underperforming and are being outclassed by the traditional Motshelo scheme.
He said that Motshelo scheme is improving the economic status of people and could be an alternative for boosting co-operatives.
He urged the co-operatives officials to look into how Motshelo scheme could be incorporated into co-operatives.
When responding to councillors’ comments, the chief co-operative auditor (business development), Goloswang Ramogala concurred with the councillors that more co-operatives are collapsing.
He said that currently they have registered about 240 co-operatives across the country and only a few are operational.
Ramogala said that the few that are functioning include the Gantsi and Bobonong ones.
The co-operative auditor indicated that Bobonong Co-operative is doing well, though it encountered hiccups during the foot and mouth disease outbreak in the area a few years ago.
He said that even though the co-operative made a bad loss, it managed to generate profits through the dedication and passion of its owners.
“Bobonong Co-operative is performing well and even building a mall worth P53 million in their area,” he said. He disclosed that some of the cooperatives that have failed include Tonota and Molepolole.
He said that the co-operatives could have survived, if they had formed joint ventures with the community.
He said co-operatives should stop their over-dependence on government and come up with creative ideas. He said that currently they are empowering youth from Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland through training in order for them to revitalise co-operatives.