On 6 April 2016, the South African President Jacob Zuma proclaimed that the local government elections will be held on 3 August 2016. This is the fourth local government elections since the country’s first free and fair non-racial general elections held on 27 April 1994. Local government elections are held to elect members of the   read more »

Finding a home in a big pond It is often said that small businesses hold the key to economic growth. Recently released data paint an interesting picture of where small businesses are making a substantial contribution to economic activity. Stats SA’s latest Quarterly financial statistics reports that the private sector earned a total of R2,1   read more »

Municipal purchases and sales of electricity followed a usual, but very interesting, seasonal pattern in the last three months of 2015, according to Stats SA’s latest Quarterly financial statistics of municipalities report.   Published every quarter, the report provides an indication of the financial status of South Africa’s 278 municipalities, including data on where municipalities   read more »

MEDIA INVITE Quarterly Employment Statistics 2015 The Statistician-General of South Africa, Dr Pali Lehohla, will release the results of the Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES) Q4 of 2015 at a media briefing to be held on Wednesday 23, March 2016 in Pretoria. Date: 23 March 2016 Lock- up: 14H00 Embargo: 14H30 Venue: GCIS Tshedimosetso House, Cnr   read more »

Next time you dig into a delicious plate of fish and chips, take a moment to ponder the value of seafood as a natural resource. Stats SA’s latest Environmental Economic Accounts Compendium provides estimates of quantities of fish available in our oceans, as well as data on catch numbers. The oceans that straddle the Southern   read more »

Credit to the twelve thousand fieldworkers who sang one song that reverberated as they combed the breadth and width of our country singing the song for the Community Survey. In the Free State the song was sung and its echo, guided by the Orange River, unleashed itself into the sandy dunes of the Northern Cape.   read more »

Much has been said about the importance of tourism, particularly of its role in economic growth, employment and attracting foreign exchange. The latest Tourism Satellite Account for South Africa report provides indicators of tourism’s role in these three spheres. Time series for much of the data are now available (10 years).   Tourism as a   read more »

The South African economy was hit hard by the global economic crisis of 2008/2009. The country’s manufacturing industry contracted sharply, and its subsequent recovery has been insufficient for the volume of manufacturing production to return to its pre-crisis level. Figure 1 shows SA’s manufacturing production (volume) compared with OECD industrial production.1 Preliminary manufacturing data for   read more »

The Statistician-General regrets to announce a delay in the release of the fourth quarter report of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey. The release, which was scheduled for Tuesday the 9th of February has been postponed to the 25th of February for the following reasons. The QLFS has run on a redesigned Master Sample for a   read more »

Data users, have your say! As an organisation we are responsible for disseminating official statistics to a wide range of data users. Statistics are produced and disseminated in the form of products and services to meet user needs.  The survey prompts users to rate the importance and satisfaction of attributes of the following dissemination platforms:   read more »