Publications
Partners
Parliament – The release of the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) was an example of how important Statistics SA's work is, Minister for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Jeff Radebe said in Parliament.
"The private sector, government and labour watch this number in a hawk-eyed way because it is the conduit of trust in the difficult world of salary and wage negotiations," said Radebe in a speech prepared for delivery at the budget vote in Parliament for Stats SA.
"The Reserve Bank uses this to review the repo rate. This is the arsenal of tools that Stats SA has in its toolkit to inform our planning, monitoring and evaluation as we traverse to our true north. We need this data and we should use it," he said.
Stats SA was allocated R2.3bn for the 2015/16 budget and spent 97.8% of it. It planned to use the remaining R49m towards paying for a new building due to be opened soon.
Comprehensive reports
It produced around 234 reports a year, among them the Income and Expenditure Survey; the Continuous Population Survey, the Gross Domestic Product; the Causes of Death Report and Crime Statistics.
On Monday it released the comprehensive Youth Profile Report, the first in a series on vulnerable groups and on Wednesday it issued the latest Housing Survey.
All of these were used for planning government programmes and gauging their effectiveness and alignment with the National Development Plan (NDP).
For the 2016/17 period, its budget was increased to R2.5bn. Its planned community survey, for example, would cost R381.5m in the coming year – money Radebe believed would be well spent.
Tribute to team
He considered the gathering and analysing of data the "roots in the consolidation of our constitutional democracy" and paid tribute to statistician general Pali Lehohla and the team at Stats SA.
Democratic Alliance MP, Sejamothopo Motau, said the country's challenge was the government's lack of will to actually implement the NDP in its entirety.
"Statistics South Africa can only deliver the method and indicators to inform that progress is inadequate," said Motau.
The Inkatha Freedom Party recommended Radebe consider a Stats SA office in Parliament so information could be closer to MPs and that it also be made available as hard copies or on computer sticks for those who do not have access to the internet.
