​On Wednesday, 14 August 2024, the Gauteng Social Development MEC Faith Mazibuko celebrated Women’s Month by empowering unemployed women who benefit from the Department’s services, such as social relief of distress and child support grants. 
These women were motivated and educated on how to conduct successful businesses, thus enabling them to be financially independent. 

Addressing more than 300 women from cooperatives that sew school uniforms for the Gauteng Department of Social Development’s Bana Pele Programme at Johannesburg City Hall, Mazibuko applauded the sterling work that has been done by mostly women-led cooperatives over the years in townships and encouraged them to be professional as they deliver much-needed services to the vulnerable communities. 

She also emphasised the importance of all cooperatives in adhering to the compliance standards set out by the Department. She said all existing cooperatives must register themselves in the central supplier database. 

“We conduct these kinds of meetings because we want you to be compliant; we want you to grow and be professional at all times”, Mazibuko added. 

She said there is so much need for the government to strengthen township economy, and that can be achieved with the support of cooperatives. She further urged members of co-ops to produce quality goods that will give children confidence and dignity.

“We want our cooperatives to produce quality goods for our people because those who benefit from these government services are also people who deserve dignity," said Mazibuko. 

She added that as a government, they want to have cooperatives that are industrialised and who are also able to be self-reliant in the future without solely depending on government funding. Mazibuko further urged local co-ops to participate in exhibitions whenever government programs visit their areas in order to grow and promote their products.

During the engagement, it was agreed that in the new round of advertisements, the department will establish a panel of cooperatives so that when there is an emergency, the Department will know which co-op to call, and also to establish a panel of service providers that will speed up the process of appointing qualified co-ops. 

In ensuring that all the NPOs are adhering to the compliance standard, the department also invited Gauteng Provincial Treasury to outline issues of compliance and non-compliance and how to properly register in the Central Supplier Database (CSD).