No joy for census team, payments delayed

the Zimbabwe Statistical Agency also have to cater for 10 450 supervisors.
Population Census director Mr Washington Mapeta yesterday said it was difficult to juggle with the money because it was inadequate.
“The money is not enough to pay all the enumerators and at the moment our accounts department is working to see if it is possible to distribute what is there.
“I do not have an exact date when they would be paid their money, but all I can say is we are working flat out on that.”

Mr Mapeta said Treasury had promised more money for the team.
“Government has told us that they are looking for the money and assured us that it would be paid,” he said.
Mr Mapeta said US$12 million provided by the United Nations Population Fund could not go towards the payment of allowances.

“The UNPF money is not for paying staff. The money is for material needed and other expenses that need to be covered for the process to be complete,” he said.
Some enumerators are still at their centres waiting to receive their allowances.
There were reports that some of them were holding on to data forms until they were paid.

But Mr Mapeta said Zimstat had not received any such reports.
He said the mop-up exercise to cover areas that could have been left out during the official counting days ended yesterday.
Officially, the census ran from August 17 to 27.
“Most of the centres are in the process of bringing the questionnaires back from the field and it is a process we expect to be completed as soon as possible to allow us

to move forward,” said Mr Mapeta.

“As for the mop-up exercise, I think it has gone well to cover others who might have been missed and it ends today (yesterday).”
The census was riddled with problems from the start.
Thousands of aspiring enumerators jostled at various centres to be considered. This resulted in two days of training being lost as officials bickered over the recruitment process.

It was then agreed that most of those to be recruited would be teachers, some of whom have experience from previous censuses.
The census, scheduled to start on August 17, started the following day in some areas due to logistical problems.

The process was also affected by late disbursement of materials, while transport shortages had a bearing on the deployment of officers in remote areas.

The population census will assist Government and other stakeholders in planning and distributing national resources.
Zimbabwe holds a census after every 10 years, with the first in 1982 showing the country had 7,6 million people.
There were 10,4 million people in 1992, with the figure rising to 11,6 million in 2002.