Statistics South Africa 2023/24 Annual Performance Plan; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed everyone, including the representatives of Statistics South Africa, and the Deputy Minister, Mr Kenny Morolong, who joined the meeting for the first time in his new role.

Ms S Luthuli (EFF, KZN) moved to adopt the agenda, and Ms E Nkosi (ANC, Mpumalanga) seconded.

The Chairperson noted that since the Committee’s last engagement with Stats SA, there had been a lot of changes, except for the fact that the entity continued to have many acting personnel in positions, and that was a cause for concern, particularly as it was the bulk of managerial posts that were filled by "acting" employees.  

Deputy Minister’s opening remarks

Deputy Minister Morolong apologised on behalf of the Minister, explaining that she was abroad on official business. He said the Ministry was humbled to report to the Select Committee on Stats SA's performance, and gave an assurance that they fully respected the job and importance of the oversight Committee, as well as their complete cooperation.

He acknowledged the presence of the Statistician General and several Stats SA managers at the meeting. He said that, as a result of the Cabinet restructuring, Stats SA would now report to Ms Khumbudzo Ntshaveni, the Minister in the Presidency. They had just met with Stats SA's senior management, and were pleased with their continuous and excellent work to gather data and communicate official and other statistics, including conducting the population census. The census report, expected to be released within the next month, would serve as a new national information baseline, as census data was the denominator for all other data. He said that Stats SA had scheduled more than 280 statistical releases for 2023/24, which was more than typical, due to the census reports.

The Amendment Bill had been submitted to Parliament for consideration, and they were waiting to hear if the process would be completed this year or in 2024. The Ministry's role was to monitor the performance of the Head of Statistics SA, the Statistician-General, and to approve or disapprove the beginning, variation, or discontinuance of statistical collection by a minister or an organ of state other than Statistics SA, as provided in Section 14 of the Statistics Act. He said the term of the Statistics Council, which was a legally mandated advisory body to both the Minister and the Statistician-General, was being extended in order for the outgoing council to oversee the release of the census report. The process for appointing the new council would begin soon.

He said these functioning projects guaranteed the delivery of the long-awaited 2022 census findings in 2023. The census was also an important source of small-area data for local planning and decision-making. He praised Statistic SA for their outstanding job, particularly during the census operation. He added that the National Statistics Agency was still an independent and impartial organisation.

Statistics SA 2023/24 Annual Performance   Plan

Mr Risenga Maluleke, Statistician-General of SA, said the presentation would cover the strategic overview, the work programme of Statistics SA, the risks and priorities. The strategic priorities of the entity were:

• insightful data
• agile operating model
• interconnected statistical system
• transformed capabiity

Members were taken through the work programme for the year under review where highlights inlcuded:

• Revamping the website (enhance further functionality of the website)
• Capital expenditure survey statistical releases published quarterly
• -release of 2022 Census results in July 2023
• Finalise data collection for the Income and Expenditure Survey in 3rd quarter
• Report on documented immigrants
• Thematic reports based on the Census 2022 (Education, child statistics, gender, people with disabilities, marginalised groups and household services
• SDG country report
• Develop a Data Source Inventory System
• Conduct impact analysis for disaster recovery

See attached for full presentation.

Discussion

The Chairperson acknowledged that Statistics SA's budget was improving and that additional funding had been provided to support some activities, including hiring staff and management. To create their own statisticians, he asked about the kind of programmes that Statistics SA was involved in. He wanted to know if Stats SA provided scholarships to individuals interested in pursuing a degree in statistics at universities. He asked about general staffing issues and how long it would take to fill positions permanently. Was there a way to improve compensation packages to be able to keep the people in positions crucial to the country's development?

Mr M Bara (DA, Gauteng) asked if Stats SA had established an attractive retention plan to address the issue of high staff turnover of people with experience, considering the agency's significant turnover over the years. He also wanted to know if Stats SA had a programme to train all government agencies and local governments on its statistical findings to help all spheres in planning, policy-making, evidence-based decision-making, and budgeting.

Ms Luthuli also raised two questions, but due to connectivity problems, she was completely inaudible.

Statistics SA's response

Mr Bruce Jooste,  Acting DDG: Corporate Services,   said that when it came to upgrading packages and employee retention strategies, they were aligned with the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) regarding what they could offer. They could counter-offer only what was within the employee's existing level. They agreed that this limited their options for retaining personnel. Their remuneration scheme was severely limited. They created and hired interns with the necessary capabilities for new statistical contexts, such as data scientists and analysts. They were also considering hiring interns, and the screening process was complete. They planned to hire 54 interns in the current fiscal year.

Stats SA did not provide scholarships for students wishing to study at universities, but they did have a continuous provincial-level programme for school-age children to get them interested in statistics. To retain skills, they had partnered with the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch, and were looking for more partnerships. Many employees, particularly the most experienced, had gone through the honours and masters' programmes of these universities, and some were still enrolled in these programmes. Stats SA was also considering introducing short courses to supplement the skills required.

They were worried that more females than males were departing Stats SA, which impacted their senior management service recruitment levels. Addressing the issue of employees "acting" and not permanently filling positions, they stated that R40 million had been given to them from 2021 to the present financial year, and that they had filled over 296 positions. However, because they had not recruited in five years, much of this had gone toward internal promotions, where candidates who had prolonged their stay at present levels and gained experience, had been promoted within the organisation. There had been external appointments, and these would be incorporated into the allocations they had been getting.

Mr Jooste said met with the National Treasury monthly to examine their recruitment methods. They had been on a massive recruitment drive, which had increased their compensation of employees (COE) bill to R102 million. This was not funded, so their COE bill forecast showed that they were exceeding expenditure. However, they were awaiting guidance from National Treasury on how they would assist Stats SA and all departments concerning the increases granted for levels 1 to 12. They had recommended that senior management service (SMS) employees be granted a cost-of-living adjustment increase, which would add an additional R18 million to the R102 million bill. They also believed that adding yearly pay progressions would add an additional amount to the bill.

In response to an inquiry regarding when the Amendment Bill would be completed, Ms Yandiswa Mpetsheni, Acting DDG: Population and Social Statistics, stated that the Amendment Bill had been considered at Cabinet level and had been approved for processing in Parliament, and that they were waiting to hear if the Bill would be on the list of priority Bills to be discussed this year. The Minister and Deputy Minister were following up on the subject, and that it would be roughly a month before they received feedback.

Mr Ashwell Jenneker, DDG: Statistical Operations and Provincial Coordination, pointed out that they published approximately 275 reports each year, which equated to one report per day, implying that they had a significant responsibility for empowering individuals. They had established a marketing and communications unit with 10 to 15 individuals, whose role it was to guarantee that people understood statistics. It has also created various training programmes.

Stats SA had established data quality courses. Under the national statistical system, they conducted pilot training courses in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the Eastern Cape, and were ready to roll them out to all the provinces. When the census report was released later this year, they would be more proactive in going to all the municipalities and releasing the results with a package known as Super Cross, installing it free of charge in all Departments and municipalities, and training officials on how to use it to conduct their own statistics of the area.

Regarding the posts with “acting” officials, Stats SA said this would soon be concluded.

The Chairperson thanked Statistics SA for the presentation and their elaborate responses.

Committee matters

Mr E Njadu (ANC, Western Cape) was welcomed in absentia to the Select Committee.

The Committee's minutes of the meeting held on 2 May were adopted.

The meeting was adjourned.