IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

18 March 2022

Professor David Everatt, Chairperson, on behalf of the South African Statistics Council

David.everatt@wits.ac.za, 0834559466

Stats SA is a globally recognised centre of excellence for producing official statistics. Stats SA is the only source of official statistics in South Africa. It has kept in touch with or led best practice across a wide range of areas, from the use of technology to data visualisation and beyond. It has made major efficiencies by moving to digital collection, which it enhanced under lockdown. It consistently produces key statistics that allow the private sector, government, international agencies and others to understand the society and economy, plan their work, and monitor progress. Stats SA data are critical in ensuring that national fiscal flows are appropriately directed, in line with the National Development Plan. Stats SA responded to the pandemic and associated lockdowns (which stop fieldwork) by pivoting to far more online work, as well as rebasing national counts, rebasing inflation, and at the time of writing, is in the midst of data collection for Census 2022.

In February 2020, this Council, a statutory body of independent experts, put in place to advise the Statistician General and the Minister in the Presidency, threatened to resign if funding cuts and a hiring freeze did not cease. It would have been reckless, if not immoral, to do so as the COVID-19 pandemic hit our shores barely a month later, affecting Council members, Stats SA staff and their families, our reporting Minister, Hon. Jackson Mthembu and hundreds of thousands of South Africans.

To even contemplate resigning in such a context was, to Council, unthinkable: we had to stand with Stats SA as they kept telling South Africans about what the pandemic was doing to us, our economy, and our society.

In the 2022 Budget, presented by the Minister of Finance, Hon. Enoch Godongwana, , government ended the cycle of cutting Stats SA, and has provided funding for the Income and Expenditure survey – which Stats SA had lobbied for as a critical instrument in this profoundly unequal society – and has provided some funds for filling key posts. Equally importantly, the restriction on hiring and promotions has been lifted, allowing Stats SA to fill ‘acting’ positions with the highly skilled staff that have been forced to ‘act’ since 2016.

As the South African Statistics Council, we formally acknowledge the funds that have been released to Stats SA, and we formally withdraw any threat of resignation.

More funds are needed, of course – for staff, for surveys that need bigger samples, and above all, to provide accurate district-level data for the new district development model. But we trust that the tide has turned, and we look forward to a refreshed and constructive relationship with government going forward.

Ends…