Mr Speaker, distinguished colleagues, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, may I just say that I see only the hon Singh being bold enough to match my tie today! [Laughter.]
Census 2011, that now-once-in-a-decade event, is upon us. The countdown has begun in earnest - Census 2011 is a mere 20 days away. Statistics SA has made all the necessary preparations. Some 156 000 enumerators, co- ordinators and supervisors have been recruited and trained. These fieldworkers have gone out, armed with clipboards, to list every dwelling in the country. Questionnaires have been prepared, printed and distributed along with other census materials. One hundred and thirty offices have been rented and equipped and 6 000 vehicles hired. Advertisements have been placed and pilots and dress rehearsals have been conducted.
The preparations already completed speak to the scale of the operation - the largest deployment of people in peacetime in our country; bigger than any election ever convened.
Yet, as we enter these final days, there remains a foreboding sense that swirls around the question: What risks remain? Perhaps the greatest risk is that people do not voluntarily participate in being counted - that they shut the doors, let the dogs out and turn the lights out when the enumerators approach. Actually, the only reason people might respond in this manner is that we haven't taken the time to allay their fears and to explain to them that participation in the census, apart from being a statutory obligation, is directly and unashamedly in their own best interests.
The "we" who need to do the explaining and who haven't yet made the time for the face-to-face contact are the 400 hon members of this House, the 90 hon members of the NCOP, the 430 members of the nine provincial legislatures and the 10 055 councillors who sit in the 243 municipalities across the length of our country. The "we" includes all of us as public representatives, regardless of the political parties we are part of. Census 2011 will only succeed if we communicate it as a national, all-inclusive endeavour.
As public representatives, we have the most to benefit from a census that is successfully run because the data obtained from the census are the vital tools we need to be proper public representatives. As we gather, the tools at our disposal are fairly blunt now. The last census was conducted in 2001 and, in the intervening period, Statistics SA has conducted a myriad surveys. Granted, some of these have been large, like the community survey, which was conducted in October 2007 and involved 345 170 households across the country.
The information gained from these surveys is important, but none of these can ever replace the trove of information that we will uncover in a full-on census that takes in every single household. Good workers, such as we aim to be in the service of our people, need the best and sharpest tools, and there is simply no other way to acquire this than through conducting a detailed census.
We have estimated that there are 14,5 million households, but have printed 20 million questionnaires, just in case. Each questionnaire is 14 pages long and contains 75 questions.
As we progress with our democracy, the need for evidence-based decision- making grows, and this evidence-based decision-making requires very high levels of detail. It is required at the national level, including the Financial and Fiscal Commission, FFC, analysis of provincial populations and levels of income. Provinces are responsible for providing the first level of pro-poor services such as basic education, health, social services and human settlements, and they need to have this level of detailed information.
Municipalities need this information. In light of the report by the Treasury last week on local government budgets and expenditure, it is important that we understand our responsibility to enable municipalities to fulfil their constitutional mandate. This information is vital for municipalities to improve on the quality of the services that they render.
Democracy anywhere needs census results; democracy in South Africa definitely needs a successful census to produce results that will make a difference.
Let me share with you a few observations about the constituency that I serve in Mitchells Plain. It is a large area which, in the 2001 census, had 398 650 people living in it. We approximate that, currently, we have about 512 000 people there, but we need an accurate number. A population of 512 000 is larger than that of many small island states. It is a large number of people and requires accuracy in decision-making.
The area has been divided into 395 enumerator areas by Statistics SA, each comprising about 120 to 150 households. Statistics SA has recruited 395 enumerators from Mitchells Plain to visit the households. This is an important step because these enumerators know the area, speak the same languages as the people in the area, and should be trusted. If there are any queries, residents should check the enumerator's Statistics SA census ID card and call the toll-free number 0800 110 248 to confirm that the person knocking at their door is indeed an enumerator from Statistics SA. In addition, Statistics SA has hired the services in that area of 101 supervisors, including people such as Mrs Faith Benjamin, Mr Daniel Muller and Ms Sheena Arendse, to ensure the success of the count.
As the Member of Parliament for that area, my interest in the census lies in knowing that we have information to evaluate around whether the community is adequately serviced. How many people actually reside there? What is the age and gender distribution of the population? Is there an adequate number of schools? What percentage of people work? To what extent is youth unemployment a problem? I can then establish whether additional libraries might be required, or whether there is a legitimate demand for an FET college that I can badger Minister Nzimande about. I can establish the adequacy of health facilities.
Information about the consumption of water and electricity will be important. Does the municipality meet the legal requirements to provide free basic services? The municipality needs to use the same data to establish whether it adequately provides for sport and recreation or for those services we do not like to discuss, such as refuse and sewage disposal. This is the kind of information I need to move me from guesswork to facts, so that I can be a better representative of the community I serve.
And I daresay that each one of us - whether in Houghton or Moletjie, in Cofimvaba or in Kloof, in Manenberg or in Mahikeng - needs the same detail of information about the constituency we serve. The only way to secure that level of detail is to know that the risks have been attended to. We need the involvement of every public representative in the process of Census 2011. And by involvement, we are not asking MPs to undertake the counting - heaven forbid that, Mr Speaker; we battle to count a quorum in this House on some days! - but we need the involvement of MPs to give assurance to residents, to give encouragement to the enumerators, and to help problem-solve in hard-to-count areas such as gated communities and densely packed informal settlements. It is also very, very important that public representatives can give assurances to constituents who may have fears because they speak languages other than our 11 official languages, or because they may be undocumented. The purpose of the census is to count everybody, and because the census details are covered by confidentiality provisions, the information obtained may not be given to another government department such as Home Affairs, the SA Police Service or the SA Revenue Service. The information is exclusively for the purpose of compiling the census.
Mister Speaker, we are calling on all public representatives to be ambassadors for Census 2011. I repeat the request I made when we discussed the budget of Statistics SA on 19 April 2011. Apart from the tasks of assurance and problem-solving, there is much advocacy to be done. Public representatives can do much to speak to organised formations - faith-based community organisations, civic organisations, trade union locals, sports clubs, schools, formations representing immigrant communities. Every conceivable organisation should be reached by public representatives. We make this appeal to our public representatives because you are best placed to know and understand the communities and constituencies that you represent.
While Statistics SA may be able to plan for possible contingencies, they cannot know the level of detail that a public representative would know about a particular area. We know details like where there are backyard dwellers; we know where there are farmers who may not want to disclose the number of farmworkers on their farms; and we know of households where, in reality, there may be three families in a single dwelling. These are things that, despite extensive preparation, we may miss because participants may not want us to know about them. This is where your assistance as a public representative will be invaluable. It bears reiteration that it is in your best interests that we know exactly what the structure of your constituency is.
Because your role in making this a success is so crucial, we want to arm you with adequate backup. Information packs have been made available to all hon members before the House convened this afternoon. Please join us in making Census 2011 a resounding success. We are very dependent on the efforts of public representatives to spread the word.
Unfortunately, the media, which have been outstanding at running countdowns to the football and Rugby World Cups, are less enthusiastic about running the clocks to the morning of 10 October 2011. I want to say to those fellows on the public radio - Mandla and the others who, every morning, give you a countdown on rugby - that, from tomorrow morning, they should start announcing 19 days to Census 2011. So, let us make it happen!
Ukubalwa komphakathi lokhu indaba yakho. Ngiyabonga kakhulu. [The census is your responsibility. Thank you very much.]