Census 2022 shows KZN doing well on some fronts but more should be done

WHILE Kwazulu-natal is doing well with its electrification drive and the provision of piped water, provincial statistics handed over to Premier Nomusa Dube-ncube by Stats SA revealed that more needs to be done to make KZN a smart province.

Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke yesterday presented the provincial results of Census 2022, released last month, in an official handover to the executive council of KZN.

The premier said the census provides an opportunity to obtain data with key demographic indicators such as population size, composition of households, their living circumstances and geographical distribution.

The population of KZN has grown from 8.9 million in 1996 to 12.4 million in 2022.

“We’ve got 10.5 million that are black African and followed by 1.1 million which are Indian Asian, followed by 183 000 which are classified as coloured, as well as the whites which make up 27 000 or more of the population,” said the premier.

Dube-ncube said the provincial results show that the population in all the districts had increased, with ethekwini having the highest population with 4.2 million people and umgungundlovu coming in second with 1.2 million.

She said although government would like to position KZN as a smart province while engaging with the stats, the reality is that KZN still has a long way to go in terms of connectivity.

“The advent of the fourth industrial revolution and the mainstreaming of artificial intelligence must be a reality to all of us,” said Dube-ncube.

However, she said KZN is largely rural. “I’m sure the usage of 100% digital multimode options of data is still something that we are all working towards and it was also presented as some of the challenges in our province,” said the premier.

However, Dube-ncube said the provincial government was pleased to hear that South Africa has moved with speed when it comes to the electrification of the country.

“In 1996 the Western Cape had the highest access to electricity and to date, as KZN, we are following the national trajectory with many of our municipalities and we are doing very well in terms of electrification,” she said.

Dube-ncube added that what is also encouraging is the number of households with access to piped water in their dwellings or inside their yards.

“We’re doing very well in terms of the statistics and there is also a lot of work that we still have to pay special attention to in terms of implementing the turnaround strategy on the issues of maintenance of our infrastructure.

“What we would normally see is that we do a lot of investment in infrastructure, but because of the lack of maintenance we tend to regress in moving with the numbers in terms of the access to those services,” she said.

The premier said the data will help the government to plan better in terms of how to serve communities and where resources need to go.

Dube-ncube said these issues were not far-fetched and that the data was highlighting the “massive responsibility” of the government of KZN and the executive council.

“Decisive and visionary leadership must take this province and our communities forward, so we do appreciate these results and we really hope that we will also further interact with various stakeholders in our province with a view that we are all singing from the same hymn book in terms of adjusting our resources and directing them where they are needed the most.”