Mercury Correspondent and Sapa
THE 2011 census figures illustrate South Africa’s inequalities, and the government will have to plan to deal with this.
Although the figures show positive trends, they also highlight stark contrasts that still exist in South Africa with regard to access to basic services, education, and annual income between the sexes and racial groups.
“Our society’s disparities are huge,” said Pali Lehohla, the statistician-general of Statistics SA, adding that these inequalities had “implications on policy”.
Lehohla handed over the results to President Jacob Zuma and Trevor Manuel, minister in the Presidency for the National Planning Commission, yesterday.
The most startling figures in the Census 2011 results were on income distribution among race and gender groups, Manuel said.
Although he found the gaps in earnings high, he was not surprised.
Challenge
“It confirms our worst fears and I think it presents us with an enormous challenge,” Manuel told reporters in Cape Town.
The census showed the gap in income between white- and black-headed households was still significantly high.
l Black-headed households had an average annual income of R60 613 in 2011, the census statistical release revealed.
l White households earned on average about six times more a year, R365 134 a year.
l Households headed by women were worse off in terms of pay.
l Female-headed households earned R67 330 in 2011, compared to R128 329 for their male counterparts.
Manuel said it was important for organs of state, business and civil society to use this information in making decisions.
The most surprising figure for Statistics Council chairman Howard Gabriels was the rate of growth in Gauteng and the Western Cape, which he said was faster than he expected.
“If you look at all the models developed over the last two years, provincial distribution of population estimates were lower for both provinces,” Gabriels said.
The third census undertaken in post-1994 South Africa showed some major shifts in population between provinces.
The greatest appeared to have been in Gauteng. There were 7.6 million people counted in that region in the 1996 census. This had grown to 9.2 million by 2001 (a 20.4 percent increase), and to 12.3 million last year, an increase of 33.7 percent from 1996 to 2011.
The population of the Western Cape grew by 28.7 percent – from almost 4 million to 5.9 million – in the same period.
“The results are used to ensure equity in distribution of government services and funds among various regions and districts for basic services,” Zuma said.
He said access to basic services had more than doubled since 1996, but admitted there was much more still to be done.
According to Stats SA, less than half of households have piped water inside their homes (46 percent), but that is better than the 32 percent of a decade ago. About one in 10 homes across the country still has no access to piped water.
About 60 percent of homes have a flush toilet connected to the sewerage system – about 5 percent have no toilets.
About 85 percent of homes have electricity.
Education levels have improved, with the number of people aged 20 and older with no primary school education halving from 18 percent in 2001 to 9 percent. The number of black African adults who have completed matric has increased from 17 percent to 29 percent in the past 10 years.
About 30 percent of people are unemployed. This is higher than Stats SA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey for that period of 24 percent unemployed, because the survey looked at a longer period than the census and asked more-detailed questions.
