mhambi: The stats says it's better

Monday, October 29, 2007

The stats says it's better

It's not all bad news. Mhambi has been very critical about the Mbeki government in the past. But Stats SA has just release new figures from a large public survey that points to significant improvements for all South Africans.

Life is improving steadily - at least in the area of housing and basic service delivery - for the 48-million people living in South Africa, according to Statistics South Africa.

According to the survey, 70,5% of households now live in formal dwellings, reflecting what Stats SA said was a "steady increase" from 64,4% in the 1996 census, and 68,5% in 2001.

The proportion of households with access to piped water grew from 84,5% in 2001 to 88,6% this year, with the Western Cape leading the pack with a figure of 98,9%.

Households still using bucket toilets halved to just over 2%, though just over 8% still had no access to any toilet facility.

Use of electricity as the main energy source for lighting increased from 69,7% in 2001 to 80% this year.

The survey found that the number of households owning a cellphone has more than doubled over the past six years.

In 2001 the percentage stood at 32,3%; this year it stood at just under 80%.

This was accompanied by a swing away from landlines.

Also showing a notable increase was the proportion of households owning a radio, television and refrigerator "in working order".

Those owning a computer almost doubled to 15,7%, but only 7,3% had internet access at home.

In the area of education, the proportion of people over 20 with "some secondary" education grew from 30,8% in 2001 to 40,1% this year, though the percentage of those with a grade 12 qualification dropped from 20,4% to 18,6%.

Though there was also a slight drop in the percentage of over-20s who had completed primary education, there was a substantial decrease - from 18% to 10% - in those who had no schooling at all.

The percentage of those aged from five to 24 years who were in school had increased by over 10% over the last decade to 74%, though the figure was now over 90% for those between six and 15 years old.