South African workers, who are affected by the current economical crisis and losing their jobs as a result, are urged to form cooperatives, said the South African Department of Trade and Industry (dti) on Sunday.

Addressing an event to mark the International Cooperatives Day celebrations in Pietermaritzburg, Kwa Zulu Natal, the department's director general Tshediso Matona called on affected workers to establish their own cooperatives that can reopen factories with potential for revival and create sustainable jobs.

He said dti was currently working with the Department of Labor to formulate a legal framework for cooperatives, which will include development incentives that can support such incentives.

Matona said organized labor could play a meaningful role in supporting this development and process by aiding workers to undertake such incentives, particularly those that were facing retrenchments.

He added that the government had also put in place a Cooperative Bank Act which encourages cooperatives to develop cooperatives banks and he emphasized that this was not the only incentive that would assist the initiative.

"We have put in place the Co-operatives Bank Development Agency to assist in regulating and supporting the development of cooperatives banks with deposit of less than 10 million rand (1.25million U.S. dollars) and more than 2 million rand (250,000 dollars) or with more than 200 members," Matona said.

The International Cooperatives Day is celebrated every year globally to create awareness about cooperatives to communities and to strengthen partnership between cooperatives, the government and other relevant players.

Source: Xinhua