Stats SA has opened up to the idea of developing a register for small-scale and informal businesses after the statistician-general met the outgoing CEO of Capitec over a disagreement about the unemployment rate.
The meeting follows a storm caused after Capitec boss Gerrie Fourie said in an interview that South Africa’s official unemployment figure was closer to 10%, instead of the 32.9% figure cited by Stats SA’s labour force survey.
His remarks led to a fierce public debate on the role of the informal sector in the economy and its ability to create jobs.
On Thursday, minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni brokered a meeting between Fourie and statistician-general Risenga Maluleke, and it was agreed Stats SA would look into setting a register of small businesses and informal businesses. “We have listened to them, and we need to investigate the issues of a statistical register for small business,” said Maluleke.
“Stats SA’s methods remain robust... We do not fix statistics to feel better about our reality. We reflect that reality, so the country can make evidence-based decisions to change it.”
Maluleke told Business Times on Friday they were contemplating the database to support government’s call for the registration of spaza shops and food-handling outlets.
Our reported unemployment rate reflects those who are actively looking for work, regardless of whether employment is formal or informal. Lowering the rate by simply reclassifying people is not a statistical adjustment — it would be a distortion
— Risenga Maluleke, statistician-general
“You know there have been a lot of developments including the whole issue of the registration of spaza shops and the whole issue including generally the entire informal sector. What we have been measuring ourselves, we have measured it only from your quarterly labour force survey. As you will see that 3.3m of those who are employed are saying they are in the informal sector.”
“The question of why now is [we are] responding to a lot of issues, including that of the registration of spaza shops and informal business,” he said, adding the database would be managed by the small business development department.
“Informal businesses do move from time to time. For example, one time we went to pilot work around Soshanguve a few metres from the train station, and when we went back, a third of those had moved. So, you need to find a way to register them, but the register is not managed by us; it is not our job to manage the register. The department of small business has the responsibility for that,” he said.
Fourie said in a statement he welcomed the engagement with Ntshavheni Maluleke, and National Treasury on the issue of the informal market.
“The informal market is vibrant and dynamic, but we believe this growth will only be achieved once the informal economy is properly understood, and supported with the right policy frameworks, infrastructure, funding, and skills development.”
He told Business Day in June that Stats SA doesn’t count self-employed people in its surveys.
“I really think that is an area we must correct. The unemployment rate is probably actually 10%. Just go look at the number of people in the township informal market, who are selling all sorts of stuff, who have a turnover of R1,000 a day,” Fourie told Business Day.
Maluleke has rebutted this claim, saying Fourie misunderstood its approach and data, which includes the informal sector in its labour market analysis. He is adamant Stats SA captures informal employment in the quarterly labour force survey and the survey of employers and the self-employed.
“To suggest the informal economy is excluded is misleading.
“Our reported unemployment rate reflects those who are actively looking for work, regardless of whether employment is formal or informal. Lowering the rate by simply reclassifying people is not a statistical adjustment — it would be a distortion.”
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