Keynote address at the launch of the first community-owned store in Hammanskraal: Delivered by SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila

[SACP Communications]

South African Communist Party

Keynote address at the launch of the first community-owned store in Hammanskraal

Delivered by SACP General Secretary Solly Mapaila on Friday, 17 October 2025

Comrades, members of the Rebothle Consumer Co-operative, leaders of the Dora Tamana Co-operative Agency (DTCA), the United Communities Consumer Co-operative (UC²), members of the Traditional Council, Party structures, and the people of Hammanskraal, revolutionary greetings.

Today, we are not simply opening a store. We are opening a new chapter in people’s power in the economy. This small community-owned shop symbolises a much greater idea – that working people can unite to build and own their own economy from the ground.

We thank our Traditional Council for joining us here. Your presence affirms that the struggle to build a people’s economy is also a struggle to restore community dignity and collective ownership of local resources.

The store we open today: small in size, great in purpose

The store we opened today is a small square shop – simple, modest, yet filled with great purpose. It represents ordinary people taking the first real steps towards controlling their own economy. From small beginnings like this, great movements are born.

The members started this journey in 2023, through a monthly order and direct-delivery system, bringing affordable goods directly to households and buying clubs. And today, through determination and unity, you have taken the next step by opening a physical store that belongs to its members and serves its community.

This store is a seed of the people’s economy, planted in the soil of Hammanskraal and watered by the hard work of its members. What we see here today is proof that building a new economy is not a dream; it is a living, growing practice rooted in the community.

From Matibidi to Hammanskraal: expanding the people’s economy

Earlier this year, I had the honour of opening the first community-owned store in Matibidi Village, Mpumalanga. Today, Hammanskraal becomes the second community-owned store in South Africa, a continuation of that historic process of rebuilding our economy through people’s ownership.

The Rebothle Co-operative is not a private venture. It is a collective effort by its members, supported by the DTCA and the United Communities Consumer Co-operative (UC²), a secondary co-operative linking local consumer cooperatives into one national movement of ownership, participation, and solidarity.

Supporting local communities’ producers: small step with a big vision

Rebothle has already begun to take important steps to support local producers. Some of the toiletries sold on these shelves are produced by another co-operative right here in Hammanskraal, showing that community trade can sustain local livelihoods. The store is also already selling fresh produce from local growers, farmers and households around Hammanskraal who are beginning to supply directly to this community shop.

And this is only the beginning. More local products will come as the network expands – eggs, vegetables, fruit, poultry, and other essentials grown and made by our own members.

This is how we build a self-sustaining community economy, an economy that keeps money circulating locally, supports workers, and strengthens community control over production and trade. Plans are already underway to expand household and small-scale production in this area. This area is rich in mangoes, avocados, lemons, poultry, and vegetables. Imagine local co-operatives turning these resources into products such as juice, jam, soap, poultry products, and fresh produce – all stocked right here.

We also celebrate the formation of a worker-owned toilet-paper manufacturing co-operative, a major step in developing productive capacity owned by workers themselves. Through this, we build community self-reliance and a self-sustaining economy.

These small but strategic steps are laying the foundation for a strong co-operative economy that can grow throughout Tshwane and inspire similar projects across the province.

Mobilising and organising our collective purchasing power

The greatest power we hold is our collective purchasing power. Each rand we spend has direction. It can either leave our communities or strengthen the co-operative.

When we buy from Rebothle, we are not simply shopping, we are building our own economy. Every rand spent here supports local jobs, empowers co-operative producers, and keeps wealth circulating within the community.

That is why every household in Hammanskraal must become a member-owner. Join this co-operative. Buy from your own store. Encourage your neighbours, friends, and stokvels to do the same. When we unite our spending, we unite our strength - and we take one more step towards building the people’s economy.

Building the people’s economy

What we celebrate today is not separate from the vision of the South African Communist Party (SACP). The SACP has always stood for a people’s economy, one that puts social need before private greed, community benefit before private profit.

We have always said that building a new economy cannot only happen in government. It must be built in the community, through collective ownership and production. Every co-operative store, every worker-owned enterprise, every household producer forms part of this broader movement.

Rebothle and the United Communities Consumer Co-operative (UC²) are not charity projects. They are instruments of transformation, uniting producers and consumers, linking trade with education, and building power in the hands of the people themselves.

Conclusion – the road ahead

Comrades, the store we open today may be relatively small, but it opens a big door to the future. It proves that the people can govern not only politically, but economically too.

From Matibidi to Hammanskraal, and soon throughout Tshwane, we are witnessing the rebirth of the people’s economy, an economy owned by the people, serving the people, and controlled by the people.

And comrades, let us have more of these, and even larger stores in every community across the country. Let us expand this movement so that every village, township, and ward can have its own people-owned shop, its own local producers, its own co-operative network.

This is the future we are building; a people’s economy grounded in ownership, co-operation, self-reliance, and solidarity.

Forward with community-owned stores!

Forward with household and co-operative production!

Forward with worker ownership and manufacturing!

Forward with community self-reliance and the people’s economy!

Thank you.