Premier Alan Winde of the Western Cape has explained the consequences of erroneous population counts, claiming that the province will be unable to request a sufficient budget allocation from National Treasury.
The province has one week to complete the Census 2022 count before the deadline.
While over 80% of the population has been counted nationwide, only roughly 60% of Western Cape citizens have been counted.
“The end result is that we don’t have the right figures when we argue for budget share at the national Treasury level, and we don’t have the right data for adequate planning into where schools, healthcare facilities, and roads should be developed,” Winde says.
As a result, it is a tool that assists the inhabitants of the province by providing the finest possible number.
If you don’t have the appropriate figure, you won’t have the right budget or plan.”
Despite strong population increase in the province, Winde indicated last month that a lower census population count will have an impact on budget allocations.
Winde expressed concern that the province will be far behind the rest of the country in the census count in 2022.
“If you aren’t tallied, we don’t know what the statistics are, and as a government, budget planning is quite tough.”
If we don’t get the numbers right, we could not get the correct tax allocation to our province to fund education and health care, ensuring that we have enough money for jobs, safety, and dignity for the programs that we as a government must implement,” Winde added.