PHILLIMON MHLANGA IN HARARE/TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) has warned census field supervisors that indiscipline will not be tolerated as preparations for this year’s population and housing census have gone a gear up, Business Times can report.
This year’s national census , which will be the fifth since independence, will take place from April 21 to 30,2022. Zimbabwe last held its census in 2012. The country’s population was 13 061 239. This reflected a 10.9% increase from the previous census which had been held in 2002.
The census is a detailed account of everyone in the country on the census night. The data will inform the country’s policy direction as questions on basic demographics and social topics such as age, sex, marital status, education, employment status and occupation will be asked.
Speaking at the ongoing provincial supervisors training workshops in Harare and Bulawayo, ZIMSTAT director-general, Taguma Mahonde said the task was a critical exercise which should be taken seriously as it is funded by taxpayers money.
“We are the leaders (level 1 supervisors) in this exercise. Let it sink into us that it’s us who are going to lead the whole process,” Mahonde said.
He said the government has put responsibility “on our shoulders as we will be taking stock of our population to assist in economic planning” and the ZIMSTAT could not take the taxpayers money to waste.
“The issue of discipline is important as we cannot put the name of ZIMSTATS and government into disrepute. This means cheating is not tolerated. Census means 100% enumeration,” Mahonde said.
“But, some will decide to do census under a tree instead of interviewing the households. This will not be tolerated as we would be putting taxpayers money to waste. Also, there is need for supervisors and enumerators to be neutral when doing data collection in the suburbs and villages
As leaders, let’s also see that there will be sober behaviour as some enumerators would give preference to alcohol.”
For the first time, Zimbabwe will be conducting a census in April as previous censuses were held in August.
This year’s exercise will also be unique as the census will be carried out using tablets known as Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) instead of paper and pen which was used over the years . The data collection from CAPI will be send to the central server for further processing.
Results are expected to be released within six months. In previous censuses, results were released after close to two years.
Mahonde also emphasised the need for a coordinated workforce.
“There is a need for discipline, for people whose minds are focused towards the exercise and follow instructions and operational procedures. Where you don’t have discipline and where you have people pursuing other objectives then you lose focus on the main objective,” he said.
Mahonde said Zimbabwe has adopted the new normalcy of living with the pandemic and the census scheduled for April this year will go ahead even if the country will be under a lockdown to minimise the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the budget has increased to US$97m from the initial US$87m after factoring in the costs of buying masks, sanitisers and other Covid-19 related consumables.
Mahonde said the preliminary results are expected to be out in three months’ time.
