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Civil servants, a majority of them teachers who are on holiday, have been shortlisted to take part in the census.
Some of the teachers who spoke to Chronicle on condition of anonymity said scores of people were turned away in the morning.
They said by 8am, census centres in the city, such as Elangeni Training Centre, Bulawayo Polytechnic and Eveline Girls High School, were already flooded with job seekers.
“As early as 8am, civil servants and jobless youths had swamped Bulawayo Polytechnic hoping to be recruited,” said one of the teachers.
“Our education officers had told us to visit the place so we could be engaged but when we arrived today they said it was no longer possible. People were shoving and pushing each other trying to listen to census officials who were calling out names.”
When the news crew visited the centres in the afternoon, a majority of people had been turned away.
“There were a lot of people here in the morning. They dismissed a few minutes ago and I think they would be coming back tomorrow,” said an official at Eveline High School.
Job seekers were still flocking to Bulawayo Polytechnic until about 12 noon. A handful of teachers were seen on the corridors at the School of Hospitality building hoping to be recruited.
Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) officials were busy with the preparatory work in one of the lecture rooms, which was filled with enumeration equipment such as clipboards and some documents.
“We are civil servants and we are not allowed to entertain the media without approval. You know protocol and you were not even supposed to enter here,” said one of the female officers.
However, when contacted for comment Zimstat director Mr Washington Mapeta said the centres were conducting registration of enumerators ahead of training sessions, which start in all provinces today.
“We are geared for the census exercise and today was the registration of enumerators who would undergo training starting tomorrow until 12 August 2012,” said Mr Mapeta.
On the people who flooded census centres to seek jobs Mr Mapeta said: “It is common for people to do that. We have not recruited more people. We still have the same number of enumerators, 30 100 and 700 vehicles.”
Mr Mapeta last week said the 700 vehicles were secured from the Central Mechanical Equipment Department (CMED) for use by Zimstat personnel in supervising the exercise.
He said some of the vehicles would help enumerators access some areas that are difficult to reach on foot.
The enumerators would undergo week-long training on how to use the census questionnaires and other counting instruments.
Matabeleland North education director Mrs Boithatelo Mnguni said the training of shortlisted enumerators would be conducted at different schools starting from today.
“We are doing checks at various centres in the districts this evening where enumerators would be trained. We have George Silundika High School in Nyamandlovu, Mabhikwa High in Lupane, Binga High, Fatima Mission for Hwange rural, Inyathi High in Bubi, Nkayi High, Tsholotsho High and Mosi-oa Tunya High in Victoria Falls,” said Mrs Mnguni.
Acting provincial administrator for Matabeleland South Mr Midard Khumalo also said the training of enumerators would begin in the province today.
The census exercise will start at midnight on the 17th of this month and run up to the 28th.
Previous ones were carried out in 1982, 1992 and the last being in 2002 when the country had a population of 12 million people compared with 10,4 million in 1992.
A population census is the process of collecting, compiling, evaluating, analysing and disseminating demographic, economic and social data pertaining to all persons in a country during a specific period.
Online Reporter