Statistics South Africa conducted the country’s third population and housing census last month where enumerators went house to house asking questions contained in the Census 2011 questionnaire.The national count kick started on a sour note when the safety of the community was compromised, this comes after a resident was robbed of a firearm and cash, when he let two men posing as census officials into his home.
Due to reports that certain residents were reluctant to co-operate, Census issued a stern warning and threatened to fine people who refuse to be counted; one wonders if this did remedy the situation.
This year’s data collection was marred with allegations of contracts signed at shopping malls and dissatisfaction from enumerators regarding their salaries which was said to be below those of other regions in comparison and this resulted in a group of field workers to picket outside Statistics South Africa offices in Vereeniging.
Sedibeng District Manager, Thokozani Vilakazi said “The project went well except for minor glitches especially in farm areas where we faced hostility and list of questionnaires being torn apart by residents and police had to intervene.
A census determines demographic data, the statistics on number, the distribution, and characteristics of people living within the borders of South Africa. Census 2011 comes 10 years after Census 2001 and the data collected will track how far South Africa progressed in terms of service delivery. For instance whilst in 1996 access to electricity was 58% by 2001 70% of South African households had access to electricity. Census 1996 put South Africa’s population size at 40.5 million and by 2001 this number had risen to 44.8 million people living within our borders.
# If you were not counted, email your details to census2011@statssa.gov.za or call 0800 110248
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