These field workers will include more than 1 500 field supervisors. The Free State premier Sisi Ntombela’s spokesperson, Sello Pietersen, tells OFM News that they hope that the results of the census will help them to deal with the socio-economic challenges across the province. Pietersen says this is a critical survey because it provides them with a much better and more accurate understanding of the conditions of people and the demographics that will enable the government in its plans.  

“It is also able to provide us with the demographics, which is quite critical in terms of planning for government and you will know that ordinarily your issue of budget and division of revenue, and so on, they are heavily reliant on a number of people that you have in a particular province or area. But for you to be able to have a much more thorough and scientific approach towards your developmental goals and your plans, you need to ensure that you have credible data,” Pietersen adds.

On its website, Stats SA recently announced that that will conduct a nationwide population and housing census from 3 to 28 February 2022. In a statement Stats SA’s Lesedi Dibakwane said the census was due to be conducted in October 2021 but was delayed due to disruptions caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Census 2022 project is set to showcase Stats SA’s new technological advances as it leaps into a new era of digital data collection. This is South Africa’s fourth population count post-democracy and the country’s first digital census, where at least 165 000 fieldworkers will be deployed across the country to count everyone within the borders of South Africa,” Dibakwane adds. The last census was conducted in 2011.

OFM News