2018 ANNUAL REPORT [1] THE SOUTH AFRICA I KNOW, THE HOME I UNDERSTAND Annual Report 2017/18 Book 1 Statistics South Africa, 2018 Risenga Maluleke, Statistician-General Annual report 2017/2018 (Book 1) / Statistics South Africa Published by Statistics South Africa, Private Bag X44, Pretoria 0001 © Statistics South Africa, 2018 Users may apply or process this data, provided Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) is acknowledged as the original source of the data; that it is specified that the application and/or analysis is the result of the user’s independent processing of the data; and that neither the basic data nor any reprocessed version or application thereof may be sold or offered for sale in any form whatsoever without prior permission from Stats SA. Annual Report 2017/2018 (Book 1) / Statistics South Africa. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa, 2018 238pp. RP238/2018 ISBN: 978-0-621-46384-2 i. Annual reports – Statistics South Africa ii. Series (LCSH 16) A complete set of Stats SA publications is available at Stats SA Library and the following libraries: National Library of South Africa, Pretoria Division National Library of South Africa, Cape Town Division Library of Parliament, Cape Town Bloemfontein Public Library Natal Society Library, Pietermaritzburg Johannesburg Public Library Eastern Cape Library Services, King William’s Town Central Regional Library, Polokwane Central Reference Library, Mbombela Central Reference Collection, Kimberley Central Reference Library, Mmabatho This report is available on the Stats SA website: www.statssa.gov.za Copies are obtainable from: Reprographics, Statistics South Africa Tel: (012) 310 8619 (012) 310 8161 Email: [email protected] 3 General information 27 Performance information 91 Governance 101 Human resource information 133 Financial information 230 List of abbreviations and acronyms SUBMISSION OF THE REPORT TO THE EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (MP) It is my pleasure to submit the 2017/18 Annual Report of Statistics South Africa for the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018, in compliance with section 7(2)(c) of the Statistics Act, 1999 (Act No. 6 of 1999), section 40(1)(d)(i) of the Public Finance Management Act, 1999 (Act No. 1 of 1999), and in accordance with section 18 of the Treasury Regulations. Risenga Maluleke Statistician-General SECTION 1 GENERAL INFORMATION 1. FOREWORD BY THE MINISTER I am pleased to table the Annual Report of Stats SA to Parliament for the first time as Minister in the Presidency: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, since taking over this portfolio in February 2018. It is often said that organisations are tested in periods of transition. Our country has seen some significant transitions in the period under review, and despite all this, our democracy continues to display the highest levels of resilience. Similarly, Stats SA has seen a transition of its own with the retirement of the first Statistician- General, Pali Lehohla, after a long and dedicated service to the people of our country. We wish him all the best for his future endeavours. I am confident that the leadership of the department, under the stewardship of the new Statistician-General, Risenga Maluleke, is experienced and capable and will steer the organisation into the future. Stats SA’s role in inculcating the culture of evidence-based policy formulation and decision-making is increasingly gaining eminence – more than ever before – due to our country’s growing demand for empirical evidence in planning, monitoring and evaluation. We assert as a country that the role of a national statistics agency is to support a capable developmental state. This role was affirmed by the late President Nelson Mandela, on the occasion of receiving the historic Census ’96 results of South Africa on 20 October 1998, said: “In deciding to hold a national census in 1996, five years earlier than might have been expected, we were acting upon our urgent need for accurate information, so that our plans should be based on the real situation. But the scale of inherited social inequality and deprivation, confirmed by the results, makes our task one of many years and one in which reconstruction and reconciliation; nation-building and development, are all of critical importance.” Credit goes to our South African government for creating an environment where the agency operates independently in terms of the collection of statistics and the publication thereof. The minister has the responsibility for oversight of Stats SA. This positions official and other statistics – for which the Statistician- General exercises remit – to the highest degree of integrity. Official statistics that enjoy a high calibre of uprightness contribute to the global competitiveness of our young democracy. Stats SA continues to adhere to internationally acclaimed principles and practices. It has placed a global footprint on matters of statistical development. In my short period in this ministry I have seen evidence that it is a well-respected organisation globally and ranks amongst the best in the world. Stats SA continues to inspire and support national statistical offices of other sister African countries. In line with the foregoing, they play a leading role in continental and global statistical fora. This will assist us to track the progress that we are making toward achieving our National Development Plan and place measurement as a critical tool for Africa’s Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals. 4 The world should leave no one behind. The voice of developing nations has to continue to be heard across the world, especially with the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Industrial revolutions have tended to leave developing nations behind; a matter that is compounded by global power relations. Technology and data are at the centre of the 4th Industrial Revolution, and Stats SA is one of our flag carriers for a better Africa and a better world. The plan to digitise data collection in Stats SA is well under way. I would like to congratulate the many women and men in statistics who are helping us to be the pathfinder in the use of digital technology. During the last few years, the feasibility of collecting data with digital devices and departing from the era of paper-driven data collection has been institutionalised. Some of these initiatives will put Stats SA on a sustainable course to be able to do more with less. Stats SA, like any other entity so funded with public resources, has to continue to exercise probity within the context of austerity that our government has embarked on. Products coming out of Stats SA have continued to remind us that young people and women remain vulnerable in labour markets and poverty, and are being exposed to all sorts of societal challenges. Black Africans, and rural women, in particular, remain even further affected by social ills. The information provided by Stats SA is very critical in our quest for a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic society. The rubric of official statistics serves as a constant reminder that the total emancipation of our people can only be achieved once those who have waited for too long for development to touch their lives have come out of any form of social exclusion. This notion fully subscribes with our clarion call for a better life for all. I am confident that this statistics agency will continue to provide the quality, timely and credible data required for planning and evaluation at all levels of government to take our country out of the triple scourge of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Stats SA will remain a reservoir from which all policymakers will drink in our endeavour to realise the dream of our iconic leaders, Tata Nelson Mandela and Mama Albertina Sisulu, in whose memory and honour this report is presented. Dr NC Dlamini-Zuma (MP) Minister in the Presidency: Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation 5 2. FOREWORD BY THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE STATISTICS COUNCIL The global agenda on development continues to increase the demand for statistics, and the global statistical community has responded with impressive initiatives to advance the cause of statistics in evidence-based decision-making. In recent development history, the 2015 United Nations Millennium Goals gave rise to the Marrakech Action Plan for Statistics in 2004, which firmly introduced the development of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics and the Busan Action Plan for Statistics in 2011, which advocated for fully integrating statistics in decision-making, promoting open access to statistics and increasing the provision of resources for statistical systems. The United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the Africa Agenda 2063 and indeed the South African National Development Plan have ushered statistics to the front seat in the global, continental and South African development agenda, respectively. Evidence-based decision-making as well as evidence-based monitoring and evaluation of policy impact constitute practice in the contemporary development agenda. In response to the increased need for evidence-based decision-making as well as the monitoring and evaluation of progress and policy impact, it became imperative to strengthen the South African National Statistics System (SANSS) as the foundation for the development of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS). Extensive work has been done during the year under review to modernise and review the Statistics Act in order to strengthen the SANSS. This work will be continued and finalised during the coming financial period. Statistics South Africa, like all government departments, is operating within an extremely tight fiscal space. Its operations are labour intensive, and compensation of employees constitutes a tangible budgetary pressure. The department's budget has been exceeded by R57 million during the year. Clearly there is an opportunity to improve operational efficiency through innovative means; yet there is also the need to bridge the process and to retain talent.