Pretoria – Minister in the Presidency: National Planning Commission, Trevor Manuel, has inaugurated the new Statistics Council that will serve for a period of three years.
The council, said Statistics SA, is appointed in terms of Section 8 of the Statistics Act. The council will advise the Minister or the Statistician General and may also advise an organ of state that produces statistics on matters referred to the council by the Minister.
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.
Mphahlele; Ian Assam; Faldie Esau; Prof Jacky Galpin; Prof Maseka Lesaoana; Dr Khangelani Zuma were reappointed to the council and will be joined by Kenneth Brown; Prof Philippe Burger; Dr Rashad Cassim; Dr Jaya Josie; Ettienne le Roux; Prof John Luiz; Prof Julian May; Dr Ariane Neethling; Prof Sarah Radloff; and Sulaiman Salau.
The provinces will be represented on the council by Prof Daniel Plaatjies; Monde Nkasawe; Glen Robbins; Zeenat Ishmail; Mveli Maphanga; Lizell Henney and Prof David Everatt
Manuel said the 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.
Former Chairperson Howard Gabriels handed over his end of term report and highlighted the key issues that were dealt with during the term. – SAnews.gov.za
