'South Africa, Census 2011 is for you'
23 August 2011
President Jacob Zuma, speaking at the 50-day countdown to South Africa's third national census since the advent of democracy, called on all South Africans to help to build a legacy for the country's children by taking part in the national count from 10 to 31 October.
"By undertaking a census today, we prepare a legacy for our children ... built on evidence and facts, a legacy whose development and growth can be sustained," Zuma said at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Monday.
"We urge all our citizens to open their doors to the census enumerators who will engage in this count," the President said, adding that projections suggest the South African population could be around 50 million.
"We need to know if that is true and how the population is distributed in terms of our settlements."
Knowing where the country's population resides, their access to services and other information collected through the census will help government plan for the future, as well as to see how far the country has come and what still needs to be done, Zuma said.
"We must obtain answers to questions such as, what must the South Africa of tomorrow look like?"
156 000 enumerators
A total of 156 000 fieldworkers will descend on the country's households from 10 October, going from house to house and spending about 45 minutes per household asking about 75 questions contained in the Census 2011 questionnaire.
The enumerators will be fluent in the country's 11 official languages as well as in Portuguese and French.
They will be identifiable by their yellow bibs and ID cards. People can also contact Statistics South Africa toll-free on 0800 110 248 to verify the legality of any enumerators.
"We want to remove every obstacle to security," said National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel.
All people within South African borders will be expected to answer the 75 questions in the questionnaire. People in hospital, prisons and other institutions will also be counted.
'It is not about checking papers'
"It is not about checking papers," said Statistician-General Pali Lehohla. "People may be aware of the undercount, which was very high in the last census. Now we want to overcome that."
The undercount in the 2001 census was 17%.
According to the Statistics Act, it is obligatory for citizens to participate in the census. South Africans are also called on to answer all questions in the questionnaire and to do so truthfully.
"We will be misleading our country if we don't do it truthfully," Manuel said, adding that information would be kept confidential.
After the census is conducted from 10 to 31 October, a postal enumeration survey (to make sure of the findings of the census survey) will be conducted in November.
Source: BuaNews
