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Herald Correspondent

The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) will be able to give the outcome within 60 days after embracing technology in conducting this year’s National Housing and Population Census, which will see enumerators using tablets instead of paper systems used in the past.

Addressing enumerators at a training workshop recently hosted by ZimStat in Harare, Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution for Harare Metropolitan, Mr Tafadzwa Muguti, said results of previous censuses took around two years to process, but new technology allows policy makers to know what is happening almost in real time.

“For the first time in the history of this country we have been given an opportunity to do things differently and right now, ZimStat is now leading in terms of all our regional surveys,” he said.

“This is the first time we are going to announce the census within 30 to 60 days. It has never been done in this continent. This census is a game-changer for the economy. It is a game-changer for us because we also have people in the informal business.

The census results would allow far more to be done to aid those in this sector and bring them into the formal sectors as self-supporting people. This year’s population and housing census is slated for April 21.

Mr Muguti called upon the enumerators to represent the Government well during their discharge of duty.

“In the New Dispensation, we have to understand something: an image is never built alone. An image is a result of a message and the message that you send out is what makes people see you with a certain image,” said Mr Muguti.

“The message you are being taught here is that you are going to communicate in a certain way and when you communicate in that way, that is how the image of Government is then seen in you.

“If you go and your image is just like a vagabond and you are not dressed properly that is the image of the Government (that you present).”