Stats SA Census 2021 mini test reveals a need for privacy
|Published
File picture: Ross Jansen File picture: Ross Jansen
Cape Town – Concerns about the privacy of information shared affected response rates to the just-concluded Census 2021 Mini Test conducted by Stats SA.
This despite assurances from officials of the national statistics agency that confidentiality of information collected is protected under the Statistics Act.
The act provides for a fine of up to R10 000 and/or imprisonment of up to six months for fieldworkers or other employees of Stats SA who are found guilty of contravening it.
In a statement, Stats SA said: “We are experiencing a general decline in response rates due to concerns about information security.”
Other challenges of collecting data faced during the Mini Test included: “Accessing households in high-walled security complexes due to safety and security concerns and respondent apathy due to the current political and social environment.”
According to the agency: “Every Stats SA official is sworn to uphold the confidentiality of collected data. Employees of Stats SA will be legally bound, by signing the oath of confidentiality, never to disclose individual information gathered in the course of their duties.
"The oath continues to apply even after employment has ceased.”
In the frequently asked questions section of its website, Stats SA offers the guarantee that “Section 8 of the Statistics Act states that no unauthorised person or organisation (including government departments) can have access to individual information that is gathered in terms of the act.”
The act states: “No other government organisation can look at any individual information collected during the census except when the data have been aggregated for report purposes and the respondent’s personal details have been excluded.”
Other challenges were a level of respondent fatigue due to the long census questionnaire, which hampered maximum co-operation from respondents as well as managing to recruit fieldworkers from within their enumeration areas.
Stats SA said it “appoints census fieldworkers from their areas of residence so that they can be able to walk to their designated enumeration areas, make appointments with households where required and limit transport challenges among other issues”.
Census 2021 will be the first digital population count in South Africa that will use enhanced methods of data collection which involves the use of tablets.
The Census 2021 Mini Test is the first phase towards conducting the total population count, with the pilot that will be conducted in October 2020 and the main census in October 2021.
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