What’s the point to take home, pay enumerators

from which other policies are formulated, can also be derailed due to lack of preparedness. Zimbabwe holds a national census every 10 years and it is known that the tenth year, which in this case falls this year, is a census year.
The census was held last month as planned, but the enumerators are still to be paid, a month after the exercise. The stampede that preceded the counting as people sought to be part of the census showed the desperation of civil servants.
These are the same workers that have been frustrated by the delays in payments, with Government citing cashflow challenges.
We learn that from the initial disbursement of US$8 million after the census, enumerators were paid US$150 each out of the US$500 they were promised and that another US$10 million is required to pay the 31 000 enumerators and 10 450 supervisors.
However, we feel the enumerators would be justified in querying the Government’s sincerity considering that the census was budgeted for and counting undertaken as required.
It is quite crucial for Government to honour its side of the bargain and pay the enumerators according to their contracts as the State cannot suddenly shirk its responsibility citing cashflow problems that only a month ago were not apparent when it made a commitment to the workers. 
Information from a census has a direct impact on all the sectors of the economy since such data is useful for planning. It therefore follows that such an important exercise that forms the fulcrum of national planning should never suffer neglect, especially considering that the Government had 10 years to plan for it.
As preparations for the referendum and later general elections gather pace, focus shall soon turn to the very people that conducted the census for their census in making the two exercises a success.  It is against this background that we feel to guarantee the success of these other programmes, the Government should pay enumerators as quickly as it can. 
The argument by the Finance Ministry that it is struggling to pay the allowances because of other commitments gives the impression that the census was not planned for or, worse still, that the affected civil servants’ allowances were not a priority. 
These committed individuals sacrificed their time to count our people and right now they are back to their workstations, but it would be unfair for their employer to expect the best from them when they are burdened with such grievances. 
These employees have always grumbled over their low pay and it is our feeling that further delays in paying them what they saw as their salvation would compromise Government services, especially in the education sector from which most of the enumerators were drawn. 
Also, failure by the Government to abide by the terms of the contracts might lead to a reluctance by the same group of employees to take part in the referendum and the national elections later on.
Such mistrust between the contracting parties has the potential of disrupting Government programmes and pushing the nation off its vision at a great cost to national development.
We are aware that the national purse is not very healthy, but we believe for the Government to build trust and lay a solid foundation for future co-operation and morale among its employees it has to pay the census enumerators before some unforeseen emergency gobbles up the little money that would have paid off the enumerators.
It is our hope that this month since the Government has assured “is looking for the money to pay” enumerators, it will eventually find it. A stitch in time saves nine.