Zimstat rapped

Portfolio Committee on Education, Sport and Culture and Gokwe MP, Cde Dorothy Mangami (Zanu-PF) said in an interview that the failure to translate the questionnaire left respondents at the mercy of enumerators.
She said the respondents might fail to adequately capture the questions during census interviews.
Cde Mangami said most issues raised in the questionnaire were vague and ambiguous.
“The translation is left to individual enumerators who might not adequately appreciate the local vernacular language or dialect,” she said.
Cde Mangami said some terminologies created ambiguity when translated into other languages.
She said examples of such questions include one on whether or not a person had “strange behaviour,” or “what is the respondent’s ethnic origin”.
“It is not clear what ‘strange behaviour’ might be understood to mean by an enumerator,” said Cde Mangami.
She said another ambiguous question was on whether or not a respondent had “difficulties in moving, seeing and speaking”.
The questionnaire also wants interviewees to state if they have “lack of feelings”.
“It is not very clear what kind of feelings do they want their respondents to proffer,” said Cde Mangami.
“While it is plausible that they are training people conversant in English, the people for which the training is being conducted understand vernacular languages.”
Population census manager, Mr Washington Mapeta, said there would be no confusion because enumerators have guidelines to assist in gathering information.
He said they recruited civil servants, mainly teachers, who are conversant with dialects in the areas they would be conducting the census. 
Mr Mapeta said translating questions into vernacular would be complex.
“People converse in different languages,” said Mr Mapeta. “There is urban vernacular and even Shona has its dialects, hence the decision to rely on those who work in the area they would be conducting the census.”
The census is expected to start tomorrow and ends on Monday, August 27.
Zimbabwe conducts population census after every 10 years to enable the Government to plan and manage the distribution of resources.