Abstract
M.A.
The South African government has promoted the cooperative model of business since
the early 2000s, viewing cooperatives as a strategy to establish small-scale farmers,
create employment and food security, and reduce the impact of poverty. Although a few
examples of successful cooperatives in South Africa do exist, the local literature has
focused on reasons for failure, rather than success. The Impumelelo Primary Agricultural
Cooperative is a rare example of a cooperative which has survived successfully in South
Africa, and this cooperative provided the case study for this research. Through the use of
social indicators theory, this study aimed to understand stakeholders’ perceptions
regarding aspects that may have led to the success of the Impumelelo agricultural
cooperative. Findings from the research revealed that many of the aspects which impact
on the performance of a cooperative in South Africa are quite specific to the national
environment and differ in many ways from overseas experiences of establishing
cooperative movements. The elements found to have had the greatest influence over the
performance of the cooperative from the combined perspectives of cooperative members
and project partners involved in this case focused on the people, processes, policy and
performance related to the cooperative. These four elements were used to design a
proposed model for cooperative success in South Africa. Although several models for
cooperative success have been designed in the past, many of the issues listed in these
models are irrelevant to a South African context. The main recommendations included a
need for more training (financial, leadership and task-specific skills), a re-examination of
the role of cooperatives and government involvement as defined in South Africa’s
development policy, the use of a project partner approach when implementing similar
projects and further analysis of the role of gender and age on cooperative performance.