The panellists chaired by Business Day editor Peter Bruce, included the following:

• Statistician-General Pali Lehohla
• Dr Miriam Altman, a distinguished Research Fellow at the Human Sciences Research Council and a member of the National Planning Commission in the Presidency
• Professor Charles Simkins, head of the School of Commerce, Philosophy and Applied Ethics, St Augustine College, Johannesburg
• Richard Pike, CEO of Adcorp and a seasoned public speaker and lecturer
• Xolela Mangcu, a public intellectual, political commentator and author
• Itumeleng Mahabane, a partner at Brunswick and a Business Day columnist
• Ashleigh Theophanides, a director at Deloitte

The two-hour discussion was recorded and posted on the Business Day website, www.businessday.co.za, which features both video clips and a full transcript of the entire discussion, and several articles focusing on elements of the dialogue.

“The Business Day dialogues, which are held on a regular basis and tackle salient issues of the day, bring together groups of leading South African minds to unpack the topics at hand, in such a way that an intelligent contribution is made to the public discourse and greater clarity is achieved,” says Mr Bruce.

“The latest Business Day dialogue on Census 2011 is particularly relevant to all of us, and not only because we all have to complete the census form. This hugely important national survey gives government and the private sector an official – and hopefully accurate – snapshot of the population of SA.”

Mr Bruce continues that the census carries with it enormous challenges, not least of which is that many people do not understand how it works, how the information they provide will be used and whether it will be confidential – or used punitively against them.

“This Business Day dialogue, which benefited immensely from the expert voices who participated, clearly answers these and many other questions. But we don’t want only those who were in the audience to derive benefit from their great insights – we want every South African to enjoy the fruits of their dialogue.

“This is why we have posted a great deal of video and written material from the dialogue on our website, affording everyone the opportunity to sink their teeth into one of our most significant national initiatives,” says Mr Bruce.

To access the Business Day dialogue materials, please visit www.businessday.co.za and click on the dialogues tab.