The Big Countdown Has Begun
 At precisely 10:00 on the 10th day of the 10th month of the 10th year of the millennium, Trevor Manual, the Minister in the Presidency responsible for planning, launched the countdown to the next census scheduled for 10 October 2011 when all those within the borders of the Republic of South Africa will be counted. This will be the third census to be held since the democratic elections held during 1994. It follows on Census 1996 and Census 2001 ---- both held on the 10th day of the 10th month.
The third census will cost R2.2 billion and will be the biggest yet, said Pali Lehohla, Director General of Statistics South Africa. He said that the third census would be conducted on 10 & 11 October 2011 and some of the questions put to the public would cover the levels of education, income, the number of people living in each household, births and deaths. Statistics South Africa will also seek information about access to services such as water, electricity, sanitation and communications.
Lehohla appealed to everybody to allow the 120 000 fieldworkers to visit about 14 million households to conduct the counting of all people in South Africa, including immigrants and foreigners. He said the census was important because it would inform Government about whether it was making progress with the provision of services and what policy changes are needed to be made.
The basic outcome of the census is to determine the size of the population and its demographic attributes such as gender, age, marital status, births, deaths, as well as its socio-economic characteristics such as education levels, employment status, sectors of employment, income levels and migration levels. It is also about human settlements conditions and access to social amenities such as water, electricity, sanitation, public transport and communications. Without this arsenal of information collected at regular intervals, the long- term vision for planning in South Africa remains a pipe dream.
The Government has set 10 priorities to be delivered in the short and medium term. Among these are to address unemployment, for this the scale and spread of production forces needs to be determined, the number of children born need to be established and how they progress in order to provide schooling and education. For this the numbers and their spatial distribution are required. Without the results of the count, these aspirations can only be by chance which lacks accountability, predictability and stability.
During the past four years Statistics South Africa has been planning for the big event taking place within the next 365 days to mark the countdown and a dress rehearsal commenced on 10 October lasting up to 31 October 2010. This will reach out to some 122 000 households in South Africa.
Lehohla said that many commentators argued that 10.10.10.10 would be an expensive undertaking but he invited those critics to try ignorance and to compare the outcome.
Pieter Rautenbach |
