A report released by Statistics South Africa titled Child Series Volume II: Crime Against Children shows that rape cases for children increased by 6,3 percentage points between 2015/16 and 2019/20, whilst both common assault and assault with grievous bodily harm (GBH) decreased by 2,1 and 3,5 percentage points respectively. Moreover, sexual assault cases for children   read more »

South Africa will have its seventh democratic elections in 2024. Every five years, South Africa holds national and provincial elections to elect the new National Assembly and provincial legislatures in each province. The 2024 national and provincial elections date will be announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in due course. In terms of the Constitution, elections   read more »

Tourist arrivals in South Africa demonstrated a positive trend, with improvements in the numbers recorded from month to month during the period spanning 2021 to 2023. In December 2023, 3,5 million travellers were recorded at South African ports of entry/exit, surpassing the figures for both November 2023, which stood at 2,6 million, and December 2022,   read more »

There is so much need but not enough money. Often faced with hard decisions on where to allocate scarce resources, governments usually have their own unique spending priorities. The South African government spent R2 187 billion (or R2,19 trillion) in the 2021/2022 fiscal year. This was R83 billion more than the R2 104 billion recorded in 2020/2021. Stats SA’s Financial statistics   read more »

The mining industry’s contribution to total turnover in the South African formal business sector has increased over the years. A comprehensive time series, available from the Annual Financial Statistics (AFS) statistical release, provides a breakdown of how the turnover pie has shifted over the years. The survey reference period for the latest AFS (i.e. AFS   read more »

After two consecutive quarters of growth, South African real gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0,2% in the third quarter (July–September) of 2023.1 The contributions to the performance of the economy were evenly spread between the industries on the production side of the economy. The contributions ranged from -0,3 of a percentage point to +0,1   read more »

Stats SA published 25 statistical releases in November. Here is a quick overview of the latest economic indicators. Employment surpasses pre-COVID-19 levels Covering a sample of about 30 000 households across the country, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey reported a rise in employment figures in the South African workforce. The economy created 399 000 jobs in the   read more »

Annual consumer inflation increased for a third consecutive month in October, verging on the upper limit of the South African Reserve Bank’s inflation target range. The headline rate was 5,9%, up from 5,4% in September. Consumer prices increased on average by 0,9% between September and October, the highest monthly rise in three months. The following   read more »

International visitors to South Africa bring much-needed foreign exchange. Dollars, euros and pounds are converted to rands and spent on tourism products like food, accommodation, recreation and transport. This helps drive domestic tourism-related activities within the country. There is often a lot of attention on the amount of money that non-resident visitors, comprising both tourists   read more »

South Africa’s two newest universities had their origins back in 2010. That year, the South African Government announced its intention to establish two new institutions of higher learning. In late 2011, the Department of Higher Education and Training, together with the University of Witwatersrand, formed the New Universities Project Management Team. This team was responsible   read more »