South Africa’s Statistician-General, Mr Pali Lehohla, was today honoured with an honorary Doctor of Commerce (DCom) degree from the University of Stellenbosch, in recognition of his role in the development of statistics in the country and beyond. The university honoured Mr Lehohla for his trendsetting approach to statistics, innovative leadership and his commitment to enhancing and developing human capacity.  Through his leadership, various programmes were initiated in pursuit of statistical literacy within his organisation, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), the country and the region.

Recently, Mr Lehohla was awarded a certificate of honour by the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) at the opening of the Union for African Population Studies (UAPS) Conference.

Mr Lehohla chaired the United Nations Statistics Commission as well as the Africa Symposium on Statistical Development. He is also chair of the Friends of the Economic Commission for Africa, the Census Millennium Development Project aimed at the harmonisation of the SADC censuses, and STATCOM Africa. Through his engagement with national statistics offices in the region, he has been instrumental in encouraging, and providing support to, African countries to conduct their round of population censuses. A member of the UN Data Revolution Advisory Group, Lehohla continues to advocate that data should be used to make sound decisions in order to advance development in the country and in the region.

Mr Lehohla has been at the forefront in leading initiatives and creating partnerships for the development of statistics and its use in the development of the country and the African continent at large. For instance, he initiated the Centre for Regional and Urban Innovation and Statistical Exploration (CRUISE) at Stellenbosch University which leads in the training of regional scientists on the continent, offering postgraduate degrees up to doctoral level. He has also supported summer and winter schools at the University of Cape Town’s Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, aided in the creation of the African Centre for Analysis of Population at the University of Pennsylvania, and established winter schools along with the University of Michigan – and, in the process, ensured the skills acquisition in poverty, labour dynamics and demographic studies as well as survey methodologies by Stats SA officials. Staff members are also offered further study opportunities at institutions in Uganda, Tanzania, Ivory Coast and Egypt.

Media Enquiries:

Ms Lesedi Dibakwane

Manager: Media Relations

Tel: (012) 310 8578

Cell: 082 805 7088

Email: lesedid@statssa.gov.za