Chairperson, statistically speaking, I can't give away any time because I only have five minutes.
Let me congratulate the hon Minister and the Statistician-General, or SG, on a job well done. I do know that the SG has been there for about 10 years now, and has done an excellent job thus far. It seems that the hon Minister has acted like a magnet, because Statistics SA fell under Finance and now it's following the Minister to the Presidency; so the Minister has some kind of charm magnet.
The hon Minister used a metaphor of pilots using certain information and instruments when they fly us around, and they have to rely on statistics. While it is important for pilots to use the statistical information that is available, it is also equally important for the passengers to know what the pilot is doing up front, because a pilot can crash into a mountain. This reminds me of two passengers who were on a flight at night, AND who were talking about what makes the plane fly in the way that it does. One passenger told the other one to look through the window and asked if he could see the red light there. The passenger said yes, and he then said he should try and look through the other window. He asked if he could see the other red light; the passenger said yes. He then said that what the pilots do is fly in between the two red lights! [Laughter.]
While we cannot overemphasise the importance of statistical data and information, I think equally important is reliability, which has been referred to by other colleagues and the Minister, its accessibility as well as its user-friendliness.
I want to pause and say that many people don't know how to use the statistics that are provided. There are complicated graphs and all sorts of information, which I think the ordinary person needs to know.
Coincidentally, I received a call from a schoolteacher a few days ago who wanted to know about poverty indexes. I told her to go to the website of Statistics SA and she would find it; but I think with Census 2011 coming up it is an ideal opportunity for the department to be able to market itself better.
We must also be careful about selective use of statistics and their manipulation, such as what we saw happen at the police station in Pietermaritzburg, where the station commissioner and others have been fired because of the manipulation of statistics to make the police station and the statistics look good.
Statistics SA, therefore, has a responsibility to co-ordinate to ensure that they work with all departments within government to make sure that the information that they give to us, as the public, is credible.
They say that until somebody counts the problems, nobody does anything about that. So, we have to count the problems and the Minister is quite right to emphasise that.
Mark Twain once said:
There are three kinds of commonly recognised untruths: lies, damn lies and statistics.
We do hope that that doesn't apply to Statistics SA and the kind of information that they put out!
I would like to ask a few questions about things like missing value. The Minister is quite right when he says that many people don't easily disclose some of the information that is required of them, particularly those in affluent areas. They do not want to disclose; the illegal immigrants that we spoken about do not disclose. So, how does one deal with this?
We have the undercount problem which the Minister referred to, the 10%, and 17%. Ten years from now is it going to be 30%? How are we going to strike a balance to ensure that there is some measure?
In Australia and in the United States the undercount is at 1,8%; and I think I will disagree when the Minister says 2% for Statistics SA. It's a bit of a tall order in the short term, but I think in the medium term ... [Interjections.] ... we can look at 2%. But I think we have to set a more reasonable target.
One of the areas that we could probably look at is incentivisation. How do we come up with incentive measures? The Minister spoke about civic duty, but how many people really show allegiance to this country? How can we give people incentives?
We all get calls: Sometimes they are from people asking us if we would like another cellphone, to go on a holiday, to do this and that, and if we give the correct answer we will win R500,00 or get a trip to Robben Island or Pofadder, or something like that. [Laughter.]
Maybe we need to start looking at incentives along the same line. It would be sad if we have to do that, but it is something that we need to look at.
Then there's compulsion. How do we compel people to reveal statistics, accurate or inaccurate? In certain countries one is compelled to vote, and there is a list of countries that I have. You have to register as a voter and you have to vote. How can ... As the IFP, we support the Vote. Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]