17 November, 2004
The Dora Tamana Credit and Savings Co-operarive (DTSACCO) is to be launched this coming Sunday the 21st November 2004. The launch will take place at the sametime as our Augmented Central Committee Meeting which starts on the 19th November 2004 till the 21st November. All South African Communist Party members who are in good standing are welcome to join DTSACCO.
The Dora Tamana Communist Stokvel is a Savings and Credit Cooperative of SACP members. SACP members, by signing up a membership form, agree to save their money together in DTSACCO and to make loans to each other at reasonable rates. The members are the owners and the members decide how their money will be used to best benefit each other.
Dora Tamana joined the Communist Party in 1942 and with a few other key women comrades she established the first ever crèche for African and coloured children in a shack at her small home in the shanty area of Blouvlei, near Retreat. She was a leader of the United Women's Organisation making the call in the early 1980's for women to stand together, build organisations and make them strong.
This launch comes at a time when the majority of our people the poor and the working class are drowning in bad debt -owing huge amounts of money in outstanding debt repayment to capitalist financial institutions including the banks, the loan sharks and others. The Communist Stokvel is mainly set up to look after the short and long term financial needs of those marginalised and exploited who are exploited by these institutions. In line with the core elements of the SACP led financial sector transformation campaign, we made the call for the banks to meet the needs of the majority of our people in our country - the poor and low paid workers. Launching a banking Co-operarive is the first step in setting up alternative financial institutions that are owned and controlled by the members. DTSACCO is being established to meet the needs of its members as opposed to making profits for the owners of the institutions as is the case with the commercial banks and other financial institutions.
CONTACT:
Sharon Ekambaram
Secretary of the DTSACCO Interim Board
Tel: 011 339-3621/2
Fax: 011 339-4244/6880
Cell: 083 634 8924
Email: chrishani@sacp.org.za