South Africans should get ready to be counted this as the Census 2022 programme gets underway next week. Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke and Deputy Minister in the Presidency Thembi Siweya outlined the Census 2022 state of readiness in Pretoria on Tuesday. The population tally will run from the 3rd to the 28th of February.
Over R3 billion has been set aside to conduct South Africa’s fourth population count post-democracy. This is the country’s first digital census where at least 165,000 field workers will be deployed across the country to count everyone within the borders of South Africa. Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke says they’re equal to the task despite COVID-19 challenges.
“So these are challenging times in terms of what COVID-19 has presented to us. It means that we need data more than any time before. And as such, I would like to appeal to everyone who finds themselves within the borders of South Africa to stand up and be counted. In the three methods that we’ve put in place. That’s a method through which you can self-enumerate.”
According to Maluleke everyone should be counted irrespective of their status in society.
“Whether you’re out there in the suburbs, gated wall, gated communities, farming communities and villages where some of us come from or informal settlements or undulating hills of our country and the valleys of our country, we want to count you. So on the eve of the second of February, that’s on the eve of the 3rd of February we will be out counting the homeless.”
The Deputy Minister in the Presidency has called on the public to be transparent when providing information to census field workers. She says the Census outcome is crucial for the planning of government programmes and policy determination.
Whether you are in high-wall areas, farms, villages, informal settlements, you will be counted in SACensus2022 because you matter. @StatsSA will leave no one behind. More info here: https://t.co/jO3Cw2uTbF. Register your household here: https://t.co/VCT0GYClGJ #GetCounted
— Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke (@SGMaluleke) January 25, 2022
“As government, one of the major things that we want to do is root out inequality, poverty, and unemployment. The data that we receive is going to give an opportunity to plan long term. For example, to assist in putting together our NDP which is informed by Stats SA information like households income, educational needs, level of poverty. So this is what we need for policy formulation.
The Statistics Council of South Africa says it will monitor and provide oversight advice to stakeholders during the Census. The council’s Chairperson Ian Assem explains:
“The council exists to provide independent advice to both the minister and Statistician-General. We’ve unique sort of role and opportunity for quality assurance for the work of Stats SA including the Census so we work with the SG with his team to ensure the preparations for the Census are on track.
People have been urged to register for remote data collection to avoid the risk of COVID-19 infection.
Source: News365
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