🗓️ 7 August 2025

📍 North West Province,Sun-City

The Minister of Small Business Development, Stella Ndabeni, delivered a powerful call to action at today’s International Day of Cooperatives event:

✅ Cooperatives are not side projects — they are key to transforming our economy!

✅ We must build from the ground up, uniting co-ops by sector and scaling up production, trade, and procurement.

✅ A new R100 BILLION TRANSFORMATION FUND is coming – co-ops must help shape it!

✅ Public procurement reforms are underway to ensure co-ops are no longer excluded.

✅ Let’s support women-led co-ops and take a firm stand against gender-based violence.

✅ We need to “Occupy the Space” – in markets, policies, and production!

🌍 Global instability shows we must shift to a people-centred economy.

🤝 Co-ops offer the path to resilience, ownership, and equality.

”Let 2025 be a year of ACTION – not just a celebration. Let’s make this the year co-ops rise and lead real economic transformation.”

Minister of Small Business Development