BL Premium reports that Statistics SA, which provides vital statistics on economic growth, employment and population, among a host of other key data essential for government planning, has about 720 vacant posts, which is a vacancy rate of 21.8%.
Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke warned on Friday during an engagement with MPs on Stats SA’s five-year strategic plan that the situation was critical. “If we don’t arrest this situation the quality of statistics will start imploding. The vacancy level is dangerous for our ability to produce reliable statistics,” Maluleke warned. The institution loses between 128 to 131 staff members a year, but in the last financial year was only allowed to fill seven posts. The high vacancy rate was due, Maluleke said, to inadequate funding. The R2.8bn which the agency will receive in 2025/26 is about the same as its funding for 2023/24, which meant that much-needed infrastructure upgrades were unaffordable. Deputy Minister in the Presidency Nonceba Mhlauli confirmed that Stats SA was in severe financial straits and said the high vacancy rate placed the sustainability of its core data series at risk. Mhlauli said discussions about the institution’s financial position were under way with National Treasury, which has undertaken to consider it for the medium-term budget policy statement later this year.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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