Chairperson, hon Minister of the National Planning Commission, Trevor Manuel, hon members, the Statistician-General and officials, sanibonani. [I greet you.].
Maybe one needs to start with an obvious thing such as definitions so that we don't have any confusion. We should try to differentiate between a survey and a census.
A survey is when somebody is looking for something or inspecting something, while during a census you count for a survey of the population. The other two terms - yes, it's free education - are individual information and public information.
Individual information is very confidential and it is used exclusively for a particular reason, while the public is entitled to have access to the public information. I am providing these definitions because our friends across the House tend to confuse these issues. We assume that they know because they are public figures but, unfortunately, that is not the case. We need to know this information.
South Africa is to undertake its third population census since the first democratic election in 1994; that is now according to the Statistics Act, No 6 of 1999. If you remember, in 2007 we only conducted a survey. As was mentioned by our hon Minister, official statistics provide an indispensable information system for a democratic society.
Statistics provide economic development, and public and government programmes with measurable data that assists future planning and resource allocation. This is very important because we tend to say that the provinces are not delivering. This is due to the fact that resources that were allocated were insufficient in relation to the population.
It is therefore important for the department to ensure that the awareness programme is a key factor in an undertaking and operation of this magnitude.
It is for this reason that the ANC insists on relevancy, impartiality and equal access during the collection of the information. The information needs to be made available on an impartial basis so as to honour the citizens' entitlement to public information and not to give the information which suits an individual sector. These individual sectors could be the media or the opposition. The information is then no longer impartial because others tend to have the privilege of receiving information before it is officially publicised.
We would like to congratulate our ANC-led government on ensuring that out of the five priorities which were born at the ANC conference in Polokwane, the departments were able to come up with 12 strategic objectives.
These 12 strategic objectives are going to be used to measure and monitor the activities. It is therefore important for the ANC to ensure that whatever debates we have we align with these five activities. Let us look at education and how statistics contribute towards education and skills development.
The Minister has mentioned the necessity of empowering our people with information. Even hon Singh was able to indicate, for a change, how important it is that our people become well informed about the format of collecting the information.
However, the ANC believes that the department needs to design an effective awareness programme - seemingly it is not there - so as to ensure effective public participation. You know, when we look at 2010, there has been talk for so many years. We are just few months away from Census 2011, but there is no talk. So we then request that such a marketing strategy or an awareness programme should be put in place.
We also, hon Minister, appreciate what has been done by the department; we are not only criticising. We are aware that the department has started the teacher participation programme and the shoe programme in preparation for Census 2011. We appreciate that. [Laughter.] They are laughing at the shoe programme; we also laughed because we did not understand.
Unfortunately time does not allow me to further explain to the hon members what the shoe programme is about, but it is quite an effective programme.
As the ANC we also appreciate that the department is really aware of the undercounting which creates a lot of problems, and we hope that something will be done. The ANC will request the department to provide the committee with a geared-up programme on the communication, marketing, publicity and advocacy instruments to deal with the preparations for Census 2011.
Why will we make this request, hon Minister? It is because as the ANC we are really unable to take further or persistent action against poor service delivery, which is created or caused by complex or different factors, one of them being the allocation of the equitable share.
I am going to be brief so that you are able to get some minutes, hon Minister.
Now let us look at the alignment of the statistics with the growing economy and creating decent jobs. Yes, indeed, Minister, the department did inform us about the CPI and the PPI. However, as the ANC, we are a bit concerned that the department is aware of the industrial sectoral fragmentation register and nothing has been done thus far.
The ANC is asking itself: How then is the information going to enhance the capacity to monitor and evaluate the transformation of economic policy? Is it going to be able to conduct the ongoing assessment and engagement around the economic policies? How is that going to be done because the department is aware, but the initiative to control that is not tangible? We cannot see it; we cannot reach it.
Yes, indeed, the President did indicate and request single integrated economic participation. As the ANC we are aware that in the provinces there are different initiatives towards the co-ops, towards the Small Medium and Micro Enterprises, SMMEs. However, we do not have the information which tells us who is benefiting from those programmes and at what level.
We also do not know whether there is any collaboration. Such information will actually assist us so that we are able to say that, indeed, there is growth in the economy and jobs are being created.
With regard to creating a safer community using statistics, editing and analysis takes longer - we are all aware of this - after the collection of the information. But the ANC always finds it very difficult to understand - especially with regard to the stats on crime - why there are people who are privileged with regard to these statistics. They are so privileged! They get it and it is so inaccurate. It is invalid, but they start talking about it and arguing about it, which causes the citizens to panic. This creates fear.
Once they have done that they do not go back and say that, by the way, they didn't have the statistics or that it was just a rumour, or that they were trying to confuse statistics. So based on that, hon Minister, we are requesting the department that for Census 2011, can we then have strict confidentiality and professional processing of the data collection before the publication? This will ensure that the so-called impartiality is achieved, as perceived by the ANC.
With regard to enhancing the quality of the health system, yes, the ANC is aware that the department is in the process of implementing the new, functional information system for health. However, the Health department should develop a reliable, single health information system. We are aware that this will be costly, but this is a Polokwane resolution. We need to achieve it, so that the system enables the departments like Treasury and planning to operate an ongoing system.
In conclusion, planning, implementation and monitoring if the priorities and 12 outcomes will only be successful if the data are accurate, consistent and leads to correct and effective decisions. The ANC supports Budget Vote No 12. [Applause.]