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Ivan Zhakata-Herald Correspondent

AS of yesterday, 5 785 279 people had been counted in the ongoing census with a dashboard of the enumeration process, that is flowing smoothly, having been set up to monitor what is taking place in the field.

Addressing journalists during a census update yesterday Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) deputy director of Information and Technology Ms Winfilda Muroka said the dashboard gives summaries and statistics of interviews that have taken place.

“It also shows statistics of the interviews that have been done so far and we are looking at a total number being 1 585 000 and all completed interviews are over 1,4 million with partially completed interviews of 135 658,” she said.

“These figures are showing what has been sent to our servers, what we have at the moment. The figures could be more depending on the number that has been sent to the server. We also have a way of monitoring what is actually happening.

“Our data sent so far shows that our average household size stands at four persons and the total population stands at 5 785 279, but like we said the interviews can be more and the population can be more as this is based on the data that has been sent to the server.”

The 2022 Population and Housing Census began last week on Thursday and will end on April 30.

Zimstat director-general Mr Taguma Mahonde gave an update on the enumeration processes and said all responses collected during the census were confidential and used for statistical purposes only.

“We have had a long journey, part of which included in 2021 when the Government promulgated a statutory instrument for the conducting of this census,” he said.

“This statutory instrument is there to support activities as defined in the Census and Statistics Act, but also just to mention that it criminalises failure to supply particulars requested for census or supplying of false information to enumerators or refusing enumerators entry into premises for the purposes of enumeration.

“This is where we began and now we are in the process of data collection where the statutory instrument naturally assists us. 

“I wish to advise the nation that enumeration started on the night of the 20th going into the morning of the 21st. 

“As ZimStat we deployed a workforce of 50 000 composed of 42 000 enumerators, 7 000 supervisors, and 500 Level 1 supervisors.”

Mr Mahonde said the enumeration exercise started with a hive of activities on the night of April 20 where enumerators visited hotels, church gatherings, hospitals, police stations, prisons and other collective institutions.

“We have 203 buses that we engaged on the census night, that is the evening of the 20th so on the 21st that is when we started visiting households.

“Our questionnaire was looking at demographic characteristics, issues to do with education, functioning, labour force, fertility, housing characteristics, and living conditions, immigration and deaths in the household.”

He said they had challenges with flooded rivers in Matabeleland North and Midlands provinces which restricted movement, but they have successfully managed to deal with the issues.

Mr Mahonde also said they were facing challenges of connectivity, but have successfully managed to send the enumeration where data connection was available so that they can sync the collected data.

“Our network connectivity is not the same throughout the country so you will find out that in urban areas network connectivity has not been a challenge and as a result data collected has been easy to sync to our servers.”

“When we go to some remote areas connectivity becomes a challenge so we are currently busy making sure that our enumerators, who are in areas where there is no connectivity, are taken to areas where there is connection so that they can sync the data,” he said.