adminThis is crucial because the nation has waited for 10 years to hold this important exercise and all logistics have been put in place at huge expense to the fiscus and delaying the process at this juncture can only add to the burden already weighing down Treasury.
It is wholly unnecessary for the various stakeholders to be bickering about who is going to play which role in this exercise and we are sure this problem can be resolved amicably and to the satisfaction of everyone.
Traditionally, civil servants, particularly teachers, have played a big role in the census and this year is no exception and we have already been told that the bulk of the 30 000 enumerators will be recruited from the teaching fraternity.
Other civil servants play different roles and we are sure everybody can be accommodated in this important national exercise.
Reports yesterday that the census hung in limbo after the training of enumerators was postponed indefinitely nationwide made disturbing reading.
According to the reports, civil servants at Bulawayo Polytechnic said they were told the programme was postponed indefinitely while some workers of the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency complained that they were left out of the exercise and alleged nepotism in the selection process.
A ZimStat employee told our Harare Bureau: “The whole selection process was biased towards people from the Census Department yet ZimStat is made up of other departments.
“There is a lot of disgruntlement in the manner the whole exercise is being done because we have people who have years of experience in these issues that have been left out or relegated to low levels in the process”.
Reports from other centres around the country indicated that there was chaos with people who had turned up for training being advised to return home.
The training period was supposed to run for 10 days from 6 August while the actual counting of people would take place from 17-18 August.
While indications on the ground were that the process was mired in confusion and chaos, ZimStat Population Census Manager Mr Washington Mapeta yesterday denied that the training exercise had been cancelled in different centres insisting that if there were problems they should be addressed at provincial level.
The Acting Finance Minister, Mr Gorden Moyo, also said the programme was still on.
We urge them to be fully apprised of the situation at various centres around the country and quickly iron out the sticking points.
What is clear at this point is that training which was supposed to begin on 6 August has been disrupted and at some centres not taken off at all while the recruitment of enumerators has been discontinued.
So precious time and resources have gone to waste over the past three days and these will have a bearing on the conduct of the census.
The process needs to get back on track soon otherwise the census could be delayed and end up eating into the third school term.
It is unfathomable that we end up disrupting the school calendar during the crucial third term of national examinations just because we failed to run a census, which we have been planning for 10 years.
There is a valid reason why censuses are held during school holidays and this is to take advantage of the availability of teachers and their pupils.
Any further hiccups could result in the delay of the opening of the third term. All stakeholders therefore need to realise the gravity of the situation and put their differences aside and shoulders to the wheel to make this exercise a success.
Zimbabwe has successfully held credible censuses since independence in 1980 with the last one in 2002 and it would be embarrassing to the nation if this one was a failure.
The nation needs to meet its deadlines and we expect Principals in the inclusive Government to be officially launching the 2012 national population census on 15 August so that the process begins in earnest.
Online Reporter