School for Organisation and Resource Management

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Browsing School for Organisation and Resource Management by Author "Gotyi, Zamikhaya Gladwell"

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    A critical analysis of the role of cooperatives in enhancing the socio-economic developments of Chris Hani District Municipality
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2019-12) Gotyi, Zamikhaya Gladwell; Theletsane, Kula Ishmael; Erasmus, W D
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The inclusion of cooperatives in the country’s major development frameworks is a declaration of the government’s confidence in their ability to enhance socio-economic development. Given the conviction, this study was conducted primarily to establish the extent to which cooperatives have enhanced the socio-economic development of poor communities; also to analyse the role of legislation in developing cooperatives; to identify factors that facilitate or impede the development of cooperatives, and lastly; to formulate a framework that can improve the functionality and sustainability of cooperatives. The Chris Hani District Municipality (CHDM) was used as the research site from which a diverse sample of 254 purposively selected state officials, cooperative members, and community members was assembled. Data from the sample was collected by focus groups and in-depth individual interviews. Effectively, the study has used data triangulation in the collection of data and interpretivist thematic content analysis to analyse it. The findings of the study established that cooperatives indeed contribute to socio-economic development. Poor communities use cooperatives for job creation, income generation, poverty alleviation, food security, crime reduction, and community empowerment. Apart from this positive finding, the study has also revealed that the legislation specifically promulgated to support cooperative development is poorly implemented. State institutions meant to implement these laws are reluctant to do so. Moreover, the study has identified a myriad of factors that impede the performance of cooperatives in socio-economic development. Together with poor implementation of the legislation, these factors debilitate the performance of cooperatives and result to their underdevelopment. Overall, this study has established that poor state support is the major factor that hinders the performance of cooperatives in socio-economic development. Based on this finding, the research recommends a comprehensive and integrated support programme as the conceptual framework by which state support should be provided to cooperatives to improve their performance in socio-economic development.