Hon Speaker, hon Minister in the Presidency, hon members, and Mr Pali Lehohla, Statistician-General, who is present here, let me also take this opportunity to commend the Statistician-General and his team for the professional manner in which they continue to conduct their official business for our country, because all stakeholders, be they government, business, labour or civil society in general, need statistics to plan.
Equally, it will be important to remind the Statistician-General of what he said in 2008, when he addressed the Young African Statisticians Conference in Pretoria:
There are too few South Africans who love statistics or have a passion for it. Central to the road map to overcoming these challenges is the role of Africa's young statisticians, whose intellect and ability are key to overcoming many of the technological and measurement issues in Africa.
The Minister has just alluded to some of the key challenges for the upcoming Census 2011 - indeed, people do shut their doors, let out their dogs and turn off their lights. That is because we come from very violent times in which our communities and their individual responsibilities and privacy have been violated to a certain extent.
Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the Minister of Police and his department for their sterling work in fighting crime and corruption, as reflected in the recent crime statistics that have been released. I am certain that this will improve the situation and go a long way in ensuring that our enumerators have easy access to our homes.
Census 2011 and its outcome is more than just the counting of people. It is about national planning and resource allocation that takes into consideration local and regional integration and development beyond our borders. It is important for us as public representatives to send the message out there; to say to ...
... badudi ba Afrika-Borwa ka bophara gore ba se ke ba t?hoga selo. Bofang dimp?a le buleng le mabati le dikgoro gore bommalabatho ge ba etla go lena ba se ke ba t?ho?wa ke selo. Go bohlokwa gore mmu?o o tsebe gore badudi ke ba ba kae mo Afrika-Borwa, bana ke ba ba kae bao ba swanet?ego go ya dikolong le gore bakgekolo le bakgalabje ke ba ba kae bao ba swanet?ego go gola motente, gore o kgone go dira dipeakant?ho. Se se tla diragala fela ge le ka dumelela bommalabatho gore ba tsene mengwakong ya lena. (Translation of Sepedi paragraph follows.)
[... South Africans not to be afraid. You must be kind enough to welcome the enumerators from Statistics SA into your respective homes to come and do the head count. It is important for the government to have the statistics of the people in South Africa, in terms of the number of schoolgoing children and the elderly who receive old age grants, so as to make the necessary budget arrangements. This will be possible only if you can welcome them in your respective homes.]
As we all know, the key challenge for our nation-building project remains unemployment, especially among the young, whose dreams are turning into a never-ending nightmare with a future that is increasingly fading away. It is evident that government needs statistics for its planning and the setting of specific targets to address housing needs, infrastructure development, unemployment and poverty. Our nation-building project continues to be characterised by high levels of inequality because we live in a society where some eat more, even in the presence of hunger.
Census 2011 must remind us here and now that, as public representatives, we cannot afford to be indifferent or be bystanders in the coming census count. If we are to contribute towards changing the socioeconomic conditions of our people, we must be willing to be active witnesses and encourage our people to stand tall and be counted.
Census 2011 presents the South African people with one of the most clear and definite tasks of influencing government planning in a manner that will significantly improve the wellbeing of our nation. For us as parliamentarians, it is a moment of the politics of possibilities, beyond party-political lines. Hon Speaker and hon Minister, while we agree that there will be logistical and technical challenges in accomplishing this important task, it is worth noting - and it is probably a source of encouragement for our enumerators to remember - that not very long ago, 6 million census workers in China successfully conducted their first census in a decade. They counted a population of approximately 1,3 billion people in 10 days. Surely ours should be much easier, particularly with the parliamentarians volunteering to be part of the team, communicating and emphasising the importance of people being counted, with a specific focus on gated communities, golf estates and informal settlements.
As the ANC, we are fully behind this programme. We will encourage our structures, as always, to make sure that our communities fully understand the importance of being counted. Therefore they should at all times be on the side of those who will make sure that this programme succeeds. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.