Co-ops undergo health and safety training
05 October 2015
Representatives of hundreds of small township businesses and co-operatives on Saturday October 3 attended a health and safety programme organised by the Johannesburg Housing Company (JOSHCO) to help them easily handle potential hazards and ensure compliance with relevant health and safety regulations in their business environments.
The training was conducted under Jozi@Work, a R3-billion City of Johannesburg's community empowerment and job creation programme seeking to help township residents to become professional and reliable service providers and turn job-seekers into job-creators.The programme’s main focus was on health and safety standards and procedures.
After the training, the participants said they found the programme useful and empowering.
Dorothy Mncube, whose Durban Deep Residents Co-operative manufactures personal protective safety clothing for the mines, said her 12-member group had immensely benefited from the programme. The primary co-operative – which consists of men and women as well as people with disabilities – supplies a number of mining companies on the West Rand with various protective clothing items.
“We have to test our products by going through what miners go through daily,” said Mncube.
“Working in potentially dangerous situations is no longer the preserve of men only. Women these days are also found in these working environments. We aim to take everyone on board in this empowering journey.”
Nombuso Mabizela – co-founder of Phanda, a seven-member primary co-operative specialising in catering and cleaning of apartments mushrooming in and around Soweto – said she and her members were ready to conquer the working world once dominated by men. The group comprises six women and a man.
“We feel truly empowered. The facilitators were very professional and explained every aspect of the training in simple and detailed terms,” said the 39-year-old mother of two.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Housing Cllr Dan Bovu told the participants that JOSHCO had awarded work packages totalling R1.5-million to co-operatives in and around Soweto.
“The City of Johannesburg wishes to see all the small, medium and micro enterprises and co-operatives contracted through the Jozi@Work programme competing with established service providers on skills, knowledge, service quality and delivery on set targets,” Bovu said.
He said JOSHCO had awarded a further R2.8-million in cleaning packages to small businesses to expedite socio-economic transformation.