Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members, I am aware that in our midst we have the Statistician-General, Mr Pali Lehohla, and the chairperson of the council, Mr Howard Gabriels. I always forget this name. [Interjections.] I'm still coming to him. I also want to note the chair of the strategy committee of the council, Mr Ben Mphahlele, and the chair of the Audit committee, Ren Van Wyk, and all of you. You are welcomed.
The Minister has already mentioned the kind of support that public representatives should provide to ensure that we help and support the work of the department. One of the discussions that we had in the committee was a resolution that it would be a little unfair to allow the Statistician- General to be the only man in the country to wear a yellow suit. [Laughter.] Therefore, maybe we should consider the chair of the Standing Committee on Finance joining him, if a tailor is provided and the right measurements are taken. [Laughter.]
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa enjoins us to, among other things and most importantly, heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice, and fundamental human rights; and lay the foundation for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by the law. It further enjoins us to improve the quality of life of citizens and free the potential of each person, as well as build a united, democratic South Africa that is able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.
To my knowledge, it never occurred before 1994 that the Census project gets launched by the heads of the state. It was only in 1996 that President Nelson Mandela launched Census 1996 and also received the results of this project in 1998. Let me remind everyone of what he said when he received the results of Census 1996. The then President of the Republic said:
Now that we know how many of us are in the country and the challenges we face, we can advance our democracy and achieve a better life for all through the commitments we have made.
This to me and to all of us laid a firm foundation for Statistics SA to put in place a system of national accounts that complements the efforts of the Reserve Bank, and a system of social statistics to assess the welfare of the population through a diversity of household surveys and population censuses.
Furthermore, addressing the jubilee of SA Statistical Association, Sasa, in 2003, the then Minister of Finance and now the Minister in the Presidency: National Planning Commission, Minister Trevor Manuel, posed five key challenges to the South African, African and global community of statistics. Among the challenges he posed are that:
We should look into the lack of trust in statistics, poverty of statistical skills, mediocre discourse where results trump methods, and onerous requirements of playing in a different league of the Special Data Dissemination Standards South Africa plunged into at the time.
He also said:
Returning to Sasa, I would suggest that of its 50 years of existence, the past decade has been the most challenging and the most rewarding because it is the first period that Sasa was freed from the structures of apartheid. For the first time, therefore, Sasa could draw on the skills of a much wider cross-section of South Africans. This fact is borne out by the representation here.
In short, at the time the Minister asked Sasa to address the statistical skills gap, statistical quality gap, and the statistical quantity gap so that they could be addressed.
Evidence suggests that to understand statistical development and how to influence its further development require that one should appreciate the interplay among economic performance, political stability, and prospects for statistical development. Equally, a historical perspective points out how this interplay in the past worked out to the detriment of statistics. However, the same interplay currently seems to work to the benefit of statistics in this country. This is due, by and large, to the leadership of the institution, the culture and practice in the arena of statistical development.
This achievement by the department of statistics demands that it must continue to identify opportunities and co-invest in statistical value creation so that the official statistics enable us to minimise the risk associated with undercounting that may lead to wrong policy choices. This is a leadership call that Stats SA must remain alive at all material times, because statistics play a vital role in the reduction of poverty - particularly in describing the reality of people's daily lives such as where the poor are, their living conditions and reasons for their poverty - and thus provide evidence to enable government to develop a measuring and monitoring tool to effectively develop policies and improve accountability and good governance.
It informs the formulation of the equitable share distribution of the nationally raised revenue in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of our country, in particular the Division of Revenue Bill. It is also a source used to count down poverty, such as the measuring the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly in the areas of halving the proportion of people living in abject poverty and suffering from hunger; reducing the number of underweight children and the percentage of children, especially girls, who do not go to school; reducing child and maternal mortality, and reversing the spread of HIV/Aids.
Development is a function of evidence-based policy-making and implementation. Therefore statistical data should be timeous and of such integrity and relevance that the transformation of our society is expedited both qualitatively and quantitatively. As we all know, the quality of statistical information determines our collective capacity to realise the ideals not only of our Constitution, but the glorious ideals of the people of South Africa, as enshrined in the Freedom Charter, that we all shall share in the wealth of our country.
Our government's steeled commitment to evidence-based policy-making has been the cause of an escalating demand for data. This commitment is expressed in many social organisations such as labour; business; nongovernmental organisations, NGOs; and the donor community. In the same vein, stakeholders are continuously demanding accurate, relevant and timeous information for decision-making.
Planning and statistics are mutually inclusive. Therefore the location of both the planning and the statistics competencies in the Presidency will ensure that the alignment of all government activities is realised. It should, however, be highlighted that there are factors that tend to limit Statistics SA's ability to respond adequately to due demands. Among them would be the demand for statistical information, which is far outweighed by the supply of adequate information and reliable data. The scarcity of statistical skills is also a major constraint to most institutions in the production of quality statistics. Statistics SA has achieved much in generating the requisite information which informed policy formulation in the past 15 years.
After going through the strategic plans of the department and the budget presentations, and making several observations on the allocation of resources, and the undertaking by the department to improve the productivity and service delivery of Statistics SA through integrated survey operations, ensuring effective management support and systems, and improving governance and accountability, it is therefore our pleasure and my pleasure to say the committee supports Budget Vote 13.
E reng ke t?ee sebaka se ke bot?e badulammogo mo Afrika Borwa ka bophara gore mo dikgweding t?e nne t?e di latelago, e tla be e le lenaneo lela la bommalabatho. Re re ba amogeleng gomme le ba bulele mejako gore ba kgone go le bala gore mmu?o o tsebe gore dinyakwa t?a lena di tla kgonwa ke ma?eleng a makae. Le se ke la ba t?haba. Bolelang le bona gomme le ba fe tshedimo?o goba bonnete bja ditaba gobane go bohlokwa gore mmu?o o kgone go le loki?et?a dilo t?a lena ka tsebo le dilo t?e di hlatlamanago mmogo.
Ke rata go t?ea sebaka se gape gore ke leboge tiri?ano ya komiti le maloko a Komiti ye e Ikemet?ego ya t?a Matlotlo le t?homi?anommogo le maofisiri le Tona go t?wa Ofising ya Mopresidente le ba Kgoro ya Dipalopalo ya Afrika- Borwa. Ke re go lena, tsebang gore re le thekgile re le ba komiti. Re re ge le dira ka mokgwa wo o swanet?ego, thekgo ya rena e tla phela e na le lena. Ke a leboga. [Legofsi.] (Translation of Sepedi paragraphs follows.)
[Let me take this opportunity to convey the message to fellow South Africans at large that the Census project will be commencing in the next four months. Kindly welcome the fieldworkers in your respective homes for the smooth running of the process, so that the government is able to estimate on the budget according to the needs of the people. Don't be scared of them. Supply them with the correct information; it will help government to make informed decisions on service delivery, based on your needs thereof.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the committee and members of the Standing Committee on Finance for their co-operation with the officials, the Minister in the Office of the Presidency, and Statistics South Africa, Stats SA. The committee supports you. As long as you perform up to standard, we will always support you. I thank you. [Applause.]]