Parliament, Friday, 6 September 2024 – The Portfolio Committee on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation was today briefed by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on the implementation of the Census 2022 project and its impact on the 7th administration.
The Statistician-General, Mr Risenga Maluleke, started his presentation by clarifying reports alleging that Stats SA has withdrawn and deleted key data sets from the 2022 Census report. “There is no data that has been withdrawn. We cannot withdraw something that has not been released. The data has not been released because of some bias that has been detected. There is no statistician who can release data with biases,” Mr Maluleke explained.
“The census is solid; there is no need for the nation to panic. The data is credible and can stand the test of time. Future generations are going to use it,” Mr Maluleke assured the committee.
The committee also wanted clarification of the reported undercounting of the citizen population by about 39 per cent. Stats SA counted 42 million citizens and final statistics produced over 60 million citizens. Stats SA said the magnitude of the undercounting did not affect the sample size, which was based on previous surveys.
The Statistician-General also took the committee through a detailed report on the Census 2022 process, highlighting difficulties ranging from Covid-19, inadequate budget and members of the public who refused to participate in the process.
One of the challenges Stats SA faced were instances in some white communities where residents would not allow census fieldworkers of other racial groups to enter their homes. He reported this occurred most in the Western Cape Province. Furthermore, in some instances, coloured fieldworkers were unable to enter predominantly black communities and black census workers were unable to work in coloured communities.
Mr Maluleke also reported that 1,2 million households refused to be enumerated and in affluent areas people were unwilling to work as field workers.
Committee Chairperson Ms Teliswa Mgweba said the committee noted the report and identified key findings and observations. “We noted that Census 2022 was greatly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and yet Stats SA completed its work. We must also note that Stats SA remains underfunded and it is important to hear how the Ministry is going to ensure that the institution has adequate financial capacity to improve its capabilities to continue releasing reliable statistics, and that it remains globally competitive as one of the best institutions in the world in terms of data gathering,” said Ms Mgweba.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE PLANNING, MONITORING AND EVALUATION, MS TELISWA MGWEBA
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