1. To present to the Portfolio Committee a practical experience of the Kings of Midlands in organising themselves as members of the taxi industry to form their own cooperative, grow their business and develop other enterprises.

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Purpose of the meeting

• 1. To present to the Portfolio Committee a
  practical experience of the Kings of Midlands in
  organising themselves as members of the taxi
  industry to form their own cooperative, grow
  their business and develop other enterprises.
• 2. To assess the relevance of services inherited
  by the DSBD from Dti to the felt needs of the
  target group for the Department of Small Business
  and Cooperatives Development.

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Reasoning behind the approach

• 1. The Portfolio Committee has a responsibility
  to hold the Department of Small Business and
  Cooperatives accountable to ensure that it
  fulfils its mandate.
• 2. In 2014/2015 financial year the Portfolio
  Committee asked the Department to do a scientific
  assessment of the relevance and effectiveness of
  programmes inherited from Dti to the mandate of
  the Department and felt needs of SMMEs and
  Cooperatives.

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Reasoning behind the approach

• 3. The Portfolio Committee has a right to do its
  own assessment of the relevance of programmes of
  the DSBD to the mandate of the Department and the
  felt needs of SMMEs and Cooperatives and use that
  information in the process of developing a Budget
  Review Recommendation Report of the Portfolio
  Committee.

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What is a Cooperative in Political and Economic
context

• A cooperative is a group of organised people
  with organised material and financial resources
  used collectively against exploitation by the
  monopoly capital so as to advance the wellbeing
  of the people.

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What type of economy is South Africa

• South Africa is a mixed economy driven by
• 1. Active participation of the State in the
  economy through State Owned Enterprises.
• 2. Active participation of the private sector
  through privately owned companies by individuals
  and partnerships.
• 3. Active participation of Cooperatives owned by
  groups of people and communities with common
  interests and needs.

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Observations that need to be made by the
Portfolio Committee

• 1. Do programmes inherited from Dti respond to
  the felt needs of the organised groups of people
  who have common interests and needs?
• 2. Is the Department of Small Business
  Development targeting organised groups and
  listening to them so as to adjust the programmes
  of the Department to address the felt needs of
  SMMEs and Cooperatives.

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Observations that need to be made by the
Portfolio Committee

• 3. Is the Department walking the talk and
  allocating its budget according to the felt needs
  of SMMEs and Cooperatives or the Department is
  addressing perceived needs by officials and
  consultants that are used by the Department to
  develop Strategic Plans.

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Lessons from the Mondragon Coops

• The most successful cooperatives movement in
• the whole world is the Mondragon Complex in
• Spain.
• Central to the success of the Mondragon is the
• Caja Laboral Popular or Community Bank which
• is sometimes called Credit Union.

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Lessons from the Mondragon Coops

• Leaders in the Mondragon system freely admit
• That if they did not have their own banking
• system, their worker cooperatives could not
• exist today.
• In Europe many cooperatives failed over years
• because traditional private banks were not
• prepared to support them in difficult times.

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Lessons from the Mondragon Coops

• 1. The Mondragon Cooperatives were formed to
  address poverty and unemployment a similar
  situation in South Africa.
• 2. In 1956 five young engineers in the Basque
  region in northern Spain inspired by the ideas of
  their former teacher and pastor they borrowed
  some money and went into production following the
  principles of democratic decision making, profit
  sharing and community responsibility.

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Lessons from Mondragon Cooperatives

• 3. From 1975 to 1985 the whole Basque region
  lost 150 000 jobs. In contrast the Mondragon
  complex gained 4000 jobs.
• 4. From the first, the role of the Caja was
  clear to utilise local financial resources and
  invest them in the creation of new enterprises
  for the development of the Basque region which
  was suffering from high unemployment.

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What can we learn from the Kings of Midlands
Case Study

• 1. They are here to share their story and how the
  programme of Dti then and DSBD today responded to
  them.
• 2. How much did they loose in the process of
  working with a Dti consultant.
• 3. What have they done on their own.
• 4. What enterprises they want to develop to
  expand their business and create more jobs.
• 5. What assistance and support they require from
  the Department and the Portfolio Committee.

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Expected end results from this meeting

• 1. The committee will us the Kings of Midlands
  Case Study to identify changes that the
  Department needs to make in order to address the
  felt needs of SMMEs and Cooperatives.
• 2. The Department would use this opportunity as a
  mirror to do its own introspection and look at
  its financial and nonfinancial support services
  it provides to SMMEs and Cooperatives.
• 3. The Department would begin to respond to the
  felt needs of SMMEs and Cooperatives.

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Expected end results from this meeting

• 4. The Department would be honest to itself in
  terms of its own capacity and capabilities to
  deliver on the mandate.
• 5. The Department would speed up the process of
  a joint Strategic Planning Session with the
  Portfolio Committee and entities that fall under
  the Department.
• 6. The Department would assess all programmes
  inherited from Dti and report back to the
  Portfolio committee within a specified time y the
  Portfolio Committee.

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Expected end results from this meeting

• 7. The Department would use the Kings of Midlands
  and draw lessons from the Mondragon Cooperatives
  to develop a model that would change the taxi
  industry from consumer to enterprises
  development similar to the Mondragon
  Cooperatives.
• 8. That the Portfolio Committee would undertake a
• study tour to Mondragon together with the
  Kings
• of Midlands and the Department immediately
• after local government elections.