Statistician General Alex Shimuafeni yesterday shrugged off Affirmative Repositioning (AR)
leader Job Amupanda’s claims that the country’s unemployment rate has crossed the 50% mark.
He also poured cold water over Amupanda’s assertion that the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) is reluctant to release the actual unemployment figures due to political reasons.
Yesterday, the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) likewise questioned the missing statistics.
While launching the 2023 Population and Housing Census Main Report in the capital, Shimuafeni seemingly tongue-in-cheek took a swipe at Amupanda, saying his claims are “ridiculous and contradicted by all available household income statistics, including those released yesterday”. As per those new figures, Namibia’s distribution of households by main source of livelihood statistics indicates that 46.6% of Namibians are dependent on salaries for survival or income, while 10.6% derive their income from commercial and subsistence farming. Another 9% get their income from non-farming business activities.
That translates into over 66.2% of Namibians who have a stable and consistent income from those three streams.
Shimuafeni stated that when those income statistics are intricately analysed, the country’s unemployment rate will still not be over 35%.
“Just look at those figures. You can all do your maths, but statistics are powerful, and
never lie. When you take the 46.6% of people getting their income from wages, the 10.6% getting their income from farming activities, and then the 9% from other businesses, that is telling us all that 66.2% of the Namibian people have an income, and somehow employed.
Those figures are then also telling us that the country’s unemployment rate can be estimated to be at around 35%. Not the other ridiculous numbers you are hearing,” he affirmed.
He added: “But it now seems like we have many other statisticians general in this country. But we, who are the official statisticians, are telling you the real and actual figures. So, I don’t know where people are getting their numbers, but those figures don’t add up. My message is that we are the official statisticians”.
The 2023 census recorded a total of 756 339 private households (conventional households) in Namibia.
The percentage share of households in urban areas increased from 49.3% in 2011 to 54.8% in 2023.
Earlier this week, a hot Amupanda took to social media to scrutinise and question the integrity and functions of the NSA.
He said the agency is captured by the ruling Swapo Party, and will never share the country’s true unemployment rate.
“How can we trust even you guys who are in the NSA? How can you be used like that? How can you be used by politicians on important issues that affect the country? So, tomorrow, when you release a statistic, how do we even know that those statistics are not cooked at the Swapo headquarters? It’s such a shame that you can even do something like that,” he fumed on social media.
Amupanda claimed that the NSA was supposed to release the much-anticipated Labour Force Survey much earlier, but was influenced by the political elite to delay the release of the report so that it has enough time “to cook the figures, as the findings in this survey are worrying [to Swapo]”.
The IPC was singing from the same hymn book.
“These officials have chosen to withhold crucial unemployment data from the report on the 2023 population census, prioritising political expediency over the truth. Although unemployment was specifically surveyed in the census, no mention is made of the results in the main report… The IPC is deeply concerned about the enormous suffering and vulnerability that these statistics signify, and our focus is primarily on creating jobs and income for Namibian households,” IPC spokesperson Immanuel Nashinge said in a statement yesterday.
Efforts to get comment from Swapo proved futile.
Literacy
The latest report highlights improved literacy levels across the various age groups of the country’s population, with 87.3% of Namibians now literate.
There is no significant difference in literacy levels between males and females. Furthermore, the literacy rate was higher in urban areas at 93.8% than in rural areas, which is at 79.6%.
At regional level, the Khomas region recorded the highest literacy rate of 95.8%, while the Kunene region had the lowest literacy rate at 63.9%.
The largest difference between male and female literacy rates was found in Kavango East, where 6.4% more males were literate.
The Oshana region recorded an equal share of the literacy rate for males and females at 92.%. Literacy is the ability to read and write with understanding in any language.
Meanwhile, at Early Childhood Development (ECD) level, the country recorded 21.4% of children who were enrolled in ECD programmes.
The majority of 26.2% of the children attending ECD facilities are in urban areas, compared to rural areas, where only 17.9% attended. Overall, a higher proportion of girls were observed to attend ECD as compared to boys. At the regional level, Erongo (32.2%) recorded the highest percentage of children attending ECD, followed by Oshana (30.8%) and Khomas (29.3%).
Kunene (11.0%) had the lowest attendance rate. The latest report shows that a total of 493 103 children recorded were aged 0 to 5 years, with more females compared to their male counterparts.
Social grants
The latest statistics indicate that 483 131 Namibians receive and are solely dependent on government social grants, ranging from old-age pensions, disability grants, State maintenance grants and foster parent grants.
A total of 176 780 Namibians receive old- age pension grants, while another 61 616 are beneficiaries of the State’s disability grants.
Furthermore, over 154 731 people are enrolled for the State maintenance grant.
The government’s foster parent grant covers over 22 742 Namibians.
Meanwhile, the NSA reported that 7.6% of children aged 17 years and below had lost at least one parent, with 1.2% having lost both parents.
Orphanhood was more prevalent in rural areas (8.0%) than in urban areas (7.0%).
Regional variations in orphanhood show that Kavango East is at 8.5%, Zambezi at 8.4%, Hardap at 8.3% and Oshikoto at 8.3%.
This shows the highest percentage of orphans with at least one parent dead.
On the other hand, Erongo (5.5%) and Khomas (6.0%) recorded the lowest percentage of orphanhood.
Furthermore, Oshikoto (2.0%) and Kavango East (1.6%) recorded the highest percentage of orphans with both parents dead.
Marital status
Yesterday’s report revealed that 69.7% of the population aged 15 years and above have never been married.
A total of 15.8% are married with a certificate, and 5.5% were married traditionally.
Another 4.1% are in a consensual union.
The graph further reveals a higher proportion of males (72.3%), compared to females (67.3%)
Meanwhile, the average age at first marriage and consensual union in Namibia stood at 30.5%, with males recording a higher mean age at 33.4% and females at 28.3%.
Mean age at first marriage and consensual union refers to the average age at which persons or a group of persons in a population get married, or go into a consensual union for the first time.
The same trend was observed for urban and rural areas, where the Omusati region recorded the highest mean age of 37.5% of males and 30.7% of females.
Zambezi recorded the lowest at 29.8% and 24.4% for males and females, respectively.
National documents
The report shows that 13.9% of the country’s population aged 16 and above do not have national identity cards.
The trend is more prevalent in rural areas, where it is 20.4% higher than in urban areas.
Zambezi (30.0%) and Kavango West (24.3%) have the highest proportion of the population 16 years and above with no national identity card.
On the other hand, the latest figures show some improvement in the issuing if IDs, which stands at a proportion of 85.3% of the population. Urban areas recorded a significant number of 91%, compared to 78.5% in rural areas. At the regional level, the highest proportion of people who have new national identification documents was in the //Kharas region, at 95.1%.
Zambezi had the lowest proportion at 69.3%.