The Statistics Amendment Bill, which aims to provide credible data to the state, through statistics collection has been passed in the National Assembly.
This Bill seeks to provide increased capability for Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).
It will also give rise to the development and implementation of the National Statistics System.
Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Itiseng Moroleng, addressed concerns by opposition parties, relating to how safe this data collection process is.
Moroleng says, “We will not allow ourselves to be distracted from the responsibility of government by criminals and criminal behaviour, and if you believe that, we should not have access to private homes purely because of criminal activities, then you don’t understand the burden of leadership in this country.”
In December last year, Stats SA said it would not pass on information collected from any of its surveys to third parties.
The National Statistical Service made the statement after the Reserve Bank had sought detailed information about private businesses.
The central bank is one of the few organisations that gave written comments on the Bill.
The bank raised concerns about Stats SA’s refusal to provide information collected from surveys.
VIDEO | Interview with the Statistician-General, Risenga Maluleke on the Bill:
