Cape Town — The Democratic Alliance (DA) has demanded that the country’s 2022 census be re-run after StatsSA had withdrawn some crucial information.
StatsSA admitted that some valuable data collected during the 2022 census was fundamentally flawed and was therefore not fit to be released to the public or for public use. The data was scheduled to be released later this month, EWN reported.
Data for income, employment, mortality and fertility has been withdrawn and the DA’s national spokesperson, Willie Aucamp, said the 2022 census was a national crisis.
He expected an explanation from StatsSA over the damage control measures it intended to implement and said the party wanted to know how it would restore the dignity of the data collection process.
[MEDIA STATEMENT 📝]
Clarity on Census 2022 Phase 2 release#StatsSA #Census2022 #ZACensus2022 pic.twitter.com/EMgCV7UQVX
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) August 22, 2024
According to The Citizen, Aucamp said the fact that it allowed a serious flaw to enter the 2022 data was a national crisis at the heart of the socio-economic planning.
“Census 2022’s integrity has been compromised to such an extent that data related to income, employment, mortality and fertility will not be put in the public domain even after the Census cost South Africa R2.3 billion of taxpayers’ money,” Aucamp said.
He added that it was not an issue of bureaucracy, but a failure that impacted all citizens and the DA has called for the next census to be brought forward and for the re-run of the 2022 census to take place. The flaws were too significant to be ignored,
“We cannot afford to base our national planning on data that is fundamentally flawed. The DA will be questioning StatsSA in the portfolio committee meeting scheduled for Friday, 23 August. We expect a thorough explanation of the damage control measures they intend to implement and how they plan to restore the integrity of our national data collection processes,” said Aucamp.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
