National Assembly Cape Town: 11 September 2007  

Madame Speaker, 

It is indeed a great honour for me to deliver my maiden speech in the National Assembly today. I would like to thank the President of the IFP, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi MP, and my party for giving me this opportunity to represent the voters. 

Co-operatives are not a new phenomenon in South Africa, having been used in the past to pool the resources of especially the agricultural community and farmers. Together with targeted state support these co-operatives formed the backbone of many a farming community in the past, and still continue to do so. 

The IFP welcomes the introduction of a regulatory framework for co-operative banks provided for in the Bill. There are many millions of South Africans that are still "unbanked" by the commercial sector, and bringing co-operative banks into the regulatory system would provide such citizens with another avenue to access financial services they need for development.  

We also support the Bill because it will protect the interests of members of co-operatives and should unleash their true potential, especially for rural development. Protection is particularly important as some of the communities that will benefit are extremely poor, under-developed and have low levels of financial literacy. We therefore welcome the provision in the Bill providing for sanctions and even deregistration of co-operative banks who transgress the law and fail to protect the interests of members. 

The IFP has long been a champion of self-help and self-reliance and co-operatives provide an ideal opportunity for especially rural communities to pool their resources for development and upliftment. Such communities can now also gain access to a range of financial services provided by co-operative banks, including loans and insurance that should assist accelerated development. 

We further welcome the creation of the Co-operative Banks Development Agency to support co-operative banks. This support will take the form of training, auditing and general support with compliance with the law. The Agency will be funded by Treasury to the tune of R25 million in the first year and will be staffed by about 40 specialists. 

The developmental role of the Agency is particularly important for co-operative banks that are newly-formed and that may at the moment lack the necessary skills and capacity to reach and assist rural communities. 

Madame Speaker, 

There is huge potential to be unlocked via co-operatives and co-operative banks. I want to refer to just one international example that proves this.

The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh was formed in 1976 by Muhammed Younis as a micro-financing operation and community development bank that made small loans to the poor without the need for securing the loan. Since then, the Bank - literally meaning Bank of Villages - has grown to more than 2 100 branches and have assist millions of people around the world to realise their dreams and potential. 

I want to close by reminding Hon Members that in 1994 the majority won its political emancipation, but it is clear that economic emancipation still eludes vast numbers of South Africans. In our opinion, this bill has the potential to be a step towards economic emancipation and development of the second economy. 

The IFP supports the Bill.

Thank you