How will we remember

On the 20th of October President Nelson Mandela received the Census ’96 report from Mark Orkin, the then head of Statistics South Africa. I had the difficult task of being the programme director on the day and with the persona of Madiba’s stature, one much larger than life made life a bit impossible for me.  The day was a highlight for the newly renamed Statistics South Africa. Before it was known as the Central Statistical Service (CSS). It appears that being a master of ceremony for delivery of census results to presidents in South Africa is a sure ticket to being a Statistician-General. I became the Statistician-General of South Africa in 2000. My successor, Risenga Maluleke was the programme director when I handed the 2001 Census results to President Mbeki in 2003 and he was again a programme director when I handed the 2011 Census results to President Zuma in 2012. In November 2017 Risenga Maluleke resumed his appointment as the Statistician-General of South Africa. This is a true statistical observation and fact hitherto undisputed. 

The officials in the Presidency had told us that Madiba will not have time as he was very busy and we needed to keep the whole function to strictly under twenty minutes. So as the programme director I had to ensure that I keep to the “Buffalo Time.” A task that proved challenging because the programme started late. We had prepared an entertaining classic on “The great Counting – How the Census Was Done.” It was factual and entertaining and ran for thirty minutes. So we ensured that the audience did not get bored whilst we waited for the President. So the video ended and the question was what next. Oh I had to tell horror stories in undertaking the census. These included having to fax a typexed cheque at 10:00 pm in order to secure the release of one of senior officials from irritated enumerators who were demanding payment. By the next morning a real cheque was sent to the Standard Bank in Limpopo. I told parliamentarians the same story and explained the circumstances. It was an honest act but for honesty to be seen to have been exercised today the Public Protector would have summoned me. 

Madiba’s speech especially at the juncture we are in as a country is worth looking at. We recorded it and is accessible on youtube https://youtu.be/ARmP3IUicwl. He addressed as though he anticipated the shenanigans as unfold in our country and by their own admission in the ruling party today. The launch was not without its entertaining errors as Madiba expressed jokingly concern that he thought he would disappear in glory. I had just invited the President to respond to the results and call on the public to receive them. No sooner had I done so than Minister Manuel stood up and said Mr President I have your census results book and I kept it by mistakeand he walked to the podium to deliver it. So the attentive Madiba as he took to the stage said well Minister that book was supposed to be handed to me first and this will not save you from the harsh remarks I am going to make. Something I had not heard but as I listened to the recording Dr Mark Orkin had also made a fatal error. He had referred to himself as head of South Africa. This was in haste to try and say head of Stats SA. Had we retained the name CSS, this error would not have occurred.  So the two mistakes by the senior officials caused Madiba to say: Well I thought I would disappear under a cloud of glory.  It is no secret that I said I will be stepping down in less than six months but some have written me off as a bygone. I am a boxer and I know how to defend myself and I will hold on. Oh we were all stitches with laughter as the elderly statesman relayed these remarks. Then he turned to his written speech. He talked to the census results and illustrated the disparities. He was so moved by the results that he said “Whites will never rule this country again, never”. This was how the facts before him were serious. He concluded the written speech by saying ““But we do at last have results with which we can work, the numbers that count for the nation. It will take time to absorb the full detail of this intricate picture of our complex society but the broad outlines should act as the clarion call to re-dedicate ourselves in every sector of the society, to the historic mission of a generation charged with transforming South African’s society in order to eradicate the poverty and imbalances that derive from our past.”

Then Madiba handed me his sheeth of sheets and said there are remarks he would like to make. This is the part that all South Africans should listen to because it is exactly this hope that he would disappear in glory he mentioned jovially to put Manuel and Orkin in their place at the opening that we as South Africans have all betrayed but more importantly his own party. He went at length on corruption and how disappointed he was that some of his comrades were indeed corrupt. He comforted himself that he has done something about – investigate, prosecute, incarcerate and confiscate stolen money and property.  It is a sad day for the country that as we try to host a series of centenary celebrations we are cursed by devastating political, economic, social and moral regression anchored in scandalafter scandal. President Mbeki asked a number of times in the historic PolokwaneElective Conference “How will we be remember them those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom as we enter the centenary reflections”. Mbeki had set his eyes on a hundred years for the ANC, a hundred years had O R Tambo lived and prospectively Mbeki would have thought about a hundred years for Mandela.  They who paid with their lives must be tossing in their graves and Verwoed and Vostermust be smiling for a perfect project.  

Were ours a wedding it would herald a bitter valentine – one South Africa wished to forget like the murder of Reeva by Pistorius in this month of love.

View the video on https://youtu.be/ARmP3IUicwl

Dr Pali Lehohla is the former Statistician-General of South Africa and former Head of Statistics South Africa.