Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele reports that through the 2022/2023 budget vote for Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), the entity will, over the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF), be given R2.8-billion in the 2022/23 financial year; R2.6-billion in 2023/24 and R2.8-billion in the 2024/25 financial year.

In addition, Stats SA has received an additional allocation of R132-million over the MTEF period to fill critical vacancies that have been vacant since October 2016, R206-million to conduct the income and expenditure survey and R105-million for 2022/23 for the post enumeration survey and other census activities.

Stats SA has also received additional funding to conduct an income and expenditure survey from October this year to November 2023, to provide comprehensive information on poverty in South Africa.

Gungubele says statistics must inform South Africa’s government decisions and are used to inform better planning, better implementation and better outcomes in the country.

“The population census offers us the most comprehensive set of statistical information to the lowest geographical level. This data set is the new statistical information baseline for the country and must therefore inform our planning, policy formulation, evaluation, budget allocation amongst others to enable better decision-making,” he adds.

The population census, which is conducted every ten years, is the biggest survey undertaken by any statistical organisation. “It is the stock taking of our people, where and how they live. It provides information on the demographic, economic and social dynamics for all persons in the country,” he explains.

Census 2022 is the first ever digital census conducted in South Africa.

However, Gungubele says all preparatory work for the census was continually disrupted, necessitating Stats SA to deploy a three-pronged approach to reach out to members of the public using in-person methods, over the telephone and self-enumeration on the Internet.

Data collection for the census started in February, with Stats SA currently being in the last phases of the collection. To date, Stats SA has completed the census count for eight of the nine provinces, currently wrapping-up census collection activities in the Western Cape.

In the 2022/23 financial year, he says Stats SA will focus its efforts on the processing and analysis of the census data. A post enumeration survey will be conducted in June to assess the over or undercount of the census.

“In 2022/23, the economic statistics programme will continue to deliver key national economic indicators by publishing 228 statistical releases and reports in line with international statistical standards,” says Gungubele.

However, he notes that government is investing in key initiatives to improve how it measures the economy, which includes improving the measurement of price indices, with the consumer price index (CPI) going digital.

“The CPI is an exceedingly important measure of both wellbeing and change. It is also the most widely used of the statistics series. It is used by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank in their setting of the repurchase ‘repo’ rate – a key determinant of interest rates,” says Gungubele.

Government is also researching the expansion of the economic statistical information base, whereby it will be publishing a discussion document on quarterly capital expenditure and conducting research on the use of administrative data for quarterly financial statistics of selected municipalities.

In addition, government is also conducting research to expand the coverage of the natural capital accounts series and compiling a research report on the inclusion of the technical and vocational education and training among higher education institutions.

“The population and social statistics programme will continue to deliver key national socioeconomic indicators by publishing 48 statistical releases and reports in 2022/23 in line with international statistical standards and practices,” he says.

Meanwhile, Gungubele says this year’s census has shown government how to institutionalise a multi-modal approach to data collection. “We will build on these innovations and investments in the coming years.

“Other key initiatives to improve how we measure the socioeconomic environment, include the research and harnessing of alternative data sources in the data ecosystem to enhance and augment the production of official statistics,” he says.

Stats SA is in its third year of implementing its five-year strategic planning. This strategy, Gungubele says, expresses the “almost single-minded approach” to further embrace and improve the evolving data ecosystem.

This is essential to deepening South African democracy, with the explicit objective to transform the way South Africa’s government works and the way it leads the statistical system in the country to be responsive to the growing user demands for sustainable development.

Combined with this vision, he says Stats SA’s strategic focus for the 2022/23 financial year will be to sustain the quality of national indicators to inform evidence-based decisions and bring new insights to users, drive legislative reform to strengthen statistical coordination in the country and drive a transformation and change agenda to enhance, innovate and diversify the operations and capability of the organisation in the data ecosystem.