MIDDELBURG – The mayor of Nkangala District Municipality (NDM), Thomas Ngwenya, is fancying stokvels as one of the possible alternatives to eradicate poverty and unemployment amongst men in the region.
Ngwenya a seasoned politician, also leader of the ANC in Nkangala region, was addressing the Men’s Parliament session held on Thursday at Nkangala District Municipality.
The session identified that poor and unemployed men were prone to commit Gender Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) acts.
Ngwenya told the symposium, if asked to intervene, he would use the power of savings and credit schemes called stokvel, in South African context, to create employment opportunities.
“The issue of stokvels is very much important in society but we need to strengthen it from the level it is now,” he said.
“Stokvels are being used just to exchange cash from one hand to another.”
A stokvel is an informal group savings scheme in which members voluntarily agree to contribute a fixed amount to a common pool on a regular basis. This could be on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis.
Ngwenya said their combined assets can be used for a worthwhile investment.
“Combining the resources together so that we are able to identify economic opportunities as a group using the same money that they are contributing on monthly basis to create jobs, to go to manufacturing to ensure that men are employed and have an income on monthly basis.,” he said.
The mayor further said that stokvels are some of the structures that are existing in society and feels that they need to be given direction.
He added that he is planning to meet with all the stokvels in the region to try to and sell the idea of them using the “power of their resources to create jobs and opportunities” while at the same time assisting the very same poor men who are without jobs currently.
“It is very difficult as a man to be unemployed. I mean it is going to discredit you. It is going to cause anger and destroy the family.
Men must provide, men must work, men must be exposed to economic opportunities to enable them to support to their families,” he said.
