The independence of StatsSA should never be compromised by any political interference

The following speech was delivered in Parliament today by DA Shadow Minister in the Presidency, Sejamothopo Motau MP, during the Budget Vote on Statistics South Africa.
Honourable Chairperson,
Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), charged with collecting independent and official statistics, including the National census of the population, is vital. Without it, we would have no idea how many people need social grants, how many live in informal settlements or how many people have to walk to work. We would not be able to objectively measure the impact of policy and where government needs to improve for the benefit of the people.
StatsSA has expressed deep concern about significant budget cuts that could impact negatively on the performance of the institution due to the potential loss of specialist skills and an inability to replace these scarce skills.
During a recent briefing of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration as well as Planning Monitoring and Evaluation, Statistician-General, Dr Pali Lehohla, made an impassioned plea to the committee, to give serious attention to this potential threat to the institution’s well-earned local and international respect for the quality and integrity of its work.
Honourable Members, StatsSA’s apparent preoccupation with the potential loss of competent, experienced staff particularly among highly skilled statisticians and IT specialists, should be taken seriously by this Parliament.
It was thus, somewhat, disappointing to realise that the institution had not provided relevant personnel data by the time Budget 2017 Estimates of National Expenditure was published. This is an unfortunate failure on the part of an organisation that should be meticulous about handling data.
Under Personnel Information on page 225 of the Budget 2017 book, Note 1 indicates that, “The department did not provide the relevant personnel data.” However, an amount of R1.3 billion is given as the “cost” of employment for 2017/18.
According to the Department’s third quarterly report for 2016/17, StatsSA had a personnel establishment of 3 511 posts, of which 3 167 were filled.
Furthermore, the Department’s Annual report indicates that the organisation had 3 572 posts at the end of March 2016 with only 3197 being filled. This number had been revised down from a complement of 4 136.
Honourable Members, StatsSA has worked very hard over many years to be recognised as a reputable institution. South Africa is rightly proud of this reputation and it must be jealously guarded by all of us.
It is in this context that the DA was apprehensive that StatsSA had been moved from the executive authority of the Minister of Finance to that of the Minister of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency.
The DA’s apprehension has been enhanced by a recent newspaper report, as indicated in my speech on the Vote 8 yesterday, that a significant government policy shift could be on the cards as The Presidency would be involved in determining budget priorities for the coming fiscal year.
The DA has made the point before but it is worth repeating: The independence of StatsSA should never be compromised by any interference in its work from The Presidency.
The credibility of the data it produces and propagates, demands untarnished institutional independence.
South Africa cannot afford any manipulation of national statistics by anyone.
The 2017/18 budget for StatsSA is R2.1 billion. This is R392 million less than last financial year’s R2.5 billion budget.
There were significant budget decreases for Programme 1 (Administration), from R744.7 million in 2016/17 to R687.5 million in 2017/18 and Programme 7 (Survey Operations) from R528 million in 2016/17 to R 191.4 in 2017/18.
The budget for Survey Operations was much higher during the past fiscal year due to an allocation of R409 million for a census and community survey that was completed during the financial year.
During the medium term, focus should remain on the legislative reform project that is currently in progress. An amount of R88 million has been budgeted for this purpose during this financial year.
The revision of the statistics legislation (Statistics Act [No.6 of 1999]) should be fast-tracked to enhance the capabilities of StatsSA to properly fulfil its mandate to coordinate statistical production among organs of state, the private sector and any other institution. This should plug identified shortcomings in the law to facilitate proper planning, decision making and the monitoring and evaluation of policies and projects.
As is the case with the portfolio committee’s oversight work regarding the departments of Public Service and Administration and Planning Monitoring and Evaluation, StatsSA is also negatively affected by this ill-considered arrangement.
The DA therefore again urges the government to not only prioritise StatsSA funding but also to safeguard the institution’s autonomy and independence from political interference.