Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members, Statistician- General Pali Lehohla, SA Statistics Council chairperson and team, I just want to make sure that the hon members on the other side are comfortable that at the end of this deliberation the Minister will have enough time to respond - not that the ANC would do that. I am saying this because the members of the Standing Committee on Finance have had a very good working relationship, therefore that time will be given from both sides.
Let me say that the fourth democratic Parliament defines itself and its character as an activist Parliament, active within and in support of a developmental state; and such a state will always put the interests of its people at the centre of all its programmes.
I thought I should begin by restating the obvious, because we have already pronounced on who we are and where we are going. Such a programme will be underpinned by decent jobs, health, education, fighting crime and corruption, and rural development.
Now, for a developmental state to achieve its objectives, developmental planning underpinned by developmental growth is paramount and non- negotiable. That is to say, we need to talk about growth that is guided in terms of investment and sometimes through state intervention.
The priorities of such a state must be informed by the basic needs of the people, particularly the poor and the most vulnerable, and not only by the aspirations and wants of those who already live with abundance.
The success or failure will not depend entirely on the availability of resources, but most importantly on the state's ability to prioritise and its political will to act against nonperformance and complacence. Secondly, if it cannot plan it cannot monitor and it cannot measure or evaluate.
Therefore, a developmental state must have the capacity to plan, co- ordinate, implement and monitor all its programmes and align those programmes in terms of the needs of the people. For planning to occur it must know what it has. It is in that spirit that the establishment of the two Ministries in the Presidency should be given reliable information and the statistical information to align and take all government programmes forward.
Minister, let me say that the establishment of the Ministries and the relocation of Statistics SA in the Presidency - which is in line with the Constitution, as the Statistician-General is appointed only by the President of the Republic - will not be sufficient for a government to succeed. We need to see an office that is fully resourced and skilled to help the entire government to plan better and efficiently.
We therefore support Budget Vote No 12 because, in our view as the ANC, it is the bedrock and foundation of all key priorities as reflected in our manifesto and the state of the nation address. Statistical information is about knowing what is there and what requires attention, so that we can move away from fixing and demolishing things that are not broken at the expense of what really needs to be fixed.
The strategic plans of the department relate to all our key priorities. Now, amongst other things that have been a political football, are the statistics around crime. Let me quote from the book of Owen Harari; he was quoting Colin Powell, who had said:
Keep looking below surface appearances. Don't shrink from doing so just because you might not like what you find.
I am saying this because this information is critical for society to know and to evaluate to what extent community forums can be part and parcel of fighting crime. But as political parties we should desist from using such information for political gain. In order for us to understand the relevance of this subject, it may be important to remember, comfortably or uncomfortably, where we have come from as a nation.
I just want to add to what you have reflected on in terms of the census, which I will not be deliberating on because my colleagues will be doing so. You know, when I grew up in the rural areas of Limpopo, we called the political activists of the time under the Bantustan "bonkgetheng", meaning "those who wanted to be elected". And those who were counting us, we used to call "bommalabatho".
Now, the problem with this, hon Minister, is not just the mindset that needed to be shifted in the past 16 years, but its relationship with the notorious Influx Control Act, section 10(a), 10(b), 10(c) and 10(d). Of course, those who were born after 1994 may not know what I am talking about. The counting of people was closely associated with being arrested and probably being charged for "loaferskap" [loitering]. Secondly, it may have meant being permanently separated from your family and being deported.
New dynamics have arisen, which the Minister has already alluded to, and I will not go into that. But I think Statistics SA needs to take all these experiences into consideration as it seeks to bring forward and mobilise society around Census 2011. I like the slogan that says - and the people have already embraced their own participation as an active society - "Nothing about us without us".
I think it is important that you don't think that you can count people successfully if they themselves are not part of that process. Some of us may feel a sense of discomfort when our past is revisited because the immunity of our past has been made synonymous with an immoral culture of racism.
Hard as it may be, hon members, let us remember that it would not be possible for any of us to move forward if the benchmark of our goal is based on an abstract past. The sooner we come to terms with this, the better.
In the same breath, the present is not the ideal time to start weeping for a glorious past which never was, but rather our energy should be directed towards a tomorrow founded on nonracialism, freedom and prosperity for all.
Side by side with the negotiation processes at Codesa that sought to produce the South Africa that we have today, the ANC and its alliance partners, together with broader civil society, started asking the question: What will the immediate goals of our democratic government be?
As a precursor to our Reconstruction and Development Programme, and from a perspective that we termed "Ready to govern!" in response to this question, we said: We will require an integrated, coherent socioeconomic policy framework to mobilise all our people and our country's resources for the final eradication of apartheid and the building of a democratic, nonracial and nonsexist society.
We also said that we would develop a detailed position and legislative programme of governance to achieve the stated objectives.
To make mention of these references reminds us of who we are and what we are today; and the mere mentioning of the word "apartheid", hon members, should not be interpreted as a whipping up of emotions or as a direct attack against the other racial groups.
Talking about the past, the pain, the sacrifices and the heroic struggles of our people were often expressed through songs, which should not and must not be read on the same page as hate speech. However, this must be seen as a common heritage that we should all be proud of. It is, in fact, because of those songs that we can proudly say that we are a nation envied by many.
In order for us to progress as a nation, information-gathering and management should not be ignored or undermined by following in the footsteps of the past government, whose intention was to create no-go zones for others as stipulated in the previous Act that I mentioned.
Under our Constitution, the management and evaluation of our statistical information is the explicit domain of Statistics SA. Neither the Minister nor the President can change, but they can engage. The purpose of this is mainly to ensure that nobody should use this information for his or her political objectives.
Statistics SA centres on people and must therefore be mechanised by people, particularly when it comes to Census 2011. We should administer this function in a manner that allows people to own the process, because without their co-operation the work of the institution can be very difficult. These plans have been constructed on the basis of information which provides measurable inputs and outputs as we progress as a nation. Government can only plan if the information before it is credible and reliable. It is this body of information that can assist in measuring the size of the problem at hand as well as the allocation of resources according to the size of the problem. Statistics are central to the Division of Revenue Bill and the three spheres of government.
Failure to provide proper information may lead to underutilisation and underbudgeting. In both instances service delivery and service provision are compromised, and the poor become a casualty of all these things.
The planning Ministry cannot only depend on what has been sampled and presented to guide the planning process of government. The sources which supply information must submit well-researched and analysed statistical information which is credible, concise, and relevant and we must not be scared to expect excellence in this regard.
We therefore have an inherent responsibility to ensure that the relevant skills and capacity are built up in all the departments and spheres of government dealing with information-gathering, particularly the Ministries involved in education, information technology, health and social development because this is where most of our problems are in terms of resource allocation.
As we face the pressures of service delivery, the use of authentic and quality data in our planning processes will ensure that we begin to procure services and inventory which are required, as opposed to procuring excess inventory to feed the collateral system of corruption and abuse of government processes. Thank you. [Applause.]