Vhembe residents are making their mark on a national level, and are occupying several top leadership positions in the country. A Vhembe resident, Laurance Bale, was S appointed as the South African President of Co-operatives on Saturday.

This follows after another Vhembe resident, Kirsten Nematandani was recently appointed as the new president of SAFA.

Bale, Limpopo´s current chairperson of co-operatives, was elected national president of co-operatives at a national conference of co-operatives that was held in Sandton, Johannesburg last Saturday. Bale, a resident of Vleifontein in the Makhado municipal area, started his career in co-operatives 15 years ago, when he was working as the savings and credit co-ordinator at the Dora Tanana initiative of the South African Communist Party.

In an exclusive interview with Mirror on Tuesday, Bale said: “It is really a challenge to me to have been appointed as the first president of co-operatives. I have to establish offices around the country as well as to market the initiative internationally.”

He added that the initiative calls on him to establish ten co-operatives in the country, such as an agricultural co-operative, a financial co-operative, a tourism co-operative and a co-operative for mining in-dustries.

Bale encourages people, particularly in the rural areas, to group themselves and start their own co-operatives in order to eradicate poverty.

Bale’s deputies are Issai Masinga of Mpumalanga and John Ntobela from the Eastern Cape, whilst Annah Kgwadi from the Free State will assist. The secretary of the co-operative is Ntsie Malao from North West. Muzi Phewa of Kwa-Zulu Natal is the deputy-secretary.