New Statistics Council appointed
The South African Statistics Council was recently inaugurated by the Minister in the Presidency responsible for National Planning, Mr Trevor Manuel. The Council is appointed in terms of Section 8 of the Statistics Act, 6 of 1999 Stats Act of 1999 to serve for a period of three years and will advise the Minister and or the Statistician-General.
The council may also advise an organ of state that produces statistics on among others matters referred to the Council by the Minister, the Statistician-General or the organ of the state; any matter regarding the collection, processing, analysis, documentation, storage and dissemination of statistics, including the taking of a population census, the elimination of unnecessary overlapping or duplication with regard to the collection or publication of statistics by organs of state.
Mr Morore Ben Mphahlele, who has served on the two previous Councils, was appointed Chair of the 23 member council appointed by the Minister, from nominations obtained through public invitations and a request to the executive council of each province.
Mr Morore Ben Mphahlele, Mr Ian Assam, Mr Faldie Esau, Prof Jacky Galpin, Prof Maseka Lesaoana, Dr Khangelani Zuma were reappointed to the council and will be joined by Mr Kenneth Brown, Prof Philippe Burger, Dr Rashad Cassim, Dr Jaya Josie, Mr Ettienne le Roux, Prof John Luiz, Prof Julian May, Dr Ariane Neethling, Prof Sarah Radloff, and Mr Sulaiman Salau. The provinces will be represented on the council by Prof Daniel Plaatjies, Mr Monde Nkasawe, Mr Glen Robbins, Ms Zeenat Ishmail, Mr Mveli Maphanga, Ms Lizell Henney and Prof David Everatt
Minister Manuel said Council needs to guide the Minister and the Statistician-General on the components of a complete and relevant set of statistics in a developing country and what the data sources should be. He further thanked the members for taking on the challenges that come with shaping the development of the country through numbers.
The former Chairperson, Mr Howard Gabriels, handed over his End of Term Report and highlighted the key issues that were dealt with during the term. Gabriels advised the new Council of the need to be objective and not allow politics to cloud facts arising from statistical data.
Enquiries:
Trevor Oosterwyk
Cell: 082 908 9104
