Enole Ditsheko and Anthony Kunda
ORGANISERS of the first post-apartheid census have spent the opening days of the exercise defending themselves against a nationwide outcry among the unemployed.
Managers in all nine provinces say that threats and intimidation by those not employed for the census have rendered many areas off-limits. Some workers have been beaten up, others savaged by dogs.
Officials have also had to appease disgruntled political parties and civics groups, which had expected the R365-million programme to spur mass job creation.
Indications by the government that the census would provide work for the unemployed led to more than 500 000 people applying for 100 000 posts. The recruitment process was completed just before the census started last week.
Many who failed to make the grade claim that those recruited were already working – a view fuelled by the selection criteria.
The Central Statistical Service (CSS), which is running the census, made Standard 10 education a basic requirement, with higher posts demanding qualities such as a car, management experience and tertiary education.
But the statistical service’s head, Mark Orkin, says that 90% of those recruited were unemployed, although many of the administrative and managerial posts were filled by people already in work.
He says just 80 of the 80 000 demarcated census areas (each representing 120 to 250 households) have been affected by the disputes – a level not likely to derail the information-gathering, due for completion on October 31.
But such arguments have not halted a spate of incidents across the country.
Enumerators earn a minimum R1 000 for three weeks’ work; their immediate superiors R1 500 for each enumerator they direct (up to R7 500), and their superiors R2 500 for the first month and R70 per area they oversee (50 areas is a rough average).
“People are trying to turn the census into an unemployment forum,” Western Cape census manager Edward Tiltman said.
Gauteng’s census has been disrupted in several areas, said manager Thabo Masemola.
The Mpumalanga census has similarly stumbled in some districts.
The North West province says it will not finish its census by the deadline. It had to re-test job applicants in some areas, including Schweizer-Reneke, because of opposition from those turned down. “We are spending a lot of time explaining these matters, rather than seeing things are in place, ” said provincial deputy manager Jean Ditsebe.
Police had to step in after outraged residents mobbed enumerators in Umtata, Transkei, on the first morning of the census.
“It is the civic associations and political parties that have been frequenting our offices,” said Northern Province census manager Surprise Hlungwani.
Many of the incidents have been blamed on the South African Unemployed Workers Union. Its head office, however, denies that it leads the opposition.
The census has also faced a string of other problems.
In Mpumalanga, thousands of farmworkers remain outside the process. Mpumalanga census manager Kobus van Wyk said farmers are too remote or too busy to participate, even if enumerators were available (which in many cases they are not).
The solution currently is to leave the forms with the farmer, in the hope that he will complete them for himself and his employees.
In the Free State, female enumerators have been barred access to gold mines in Welkom. Two enumerators in East London are alleged to have asked for cash from residents to fill in the forms. Enumerators in other provinces have been fired for completing the forms themselves (though officials say such cases are isolated and easily spotted).
Officials remain confident that the census will meet its aims, and that the margin of error in the counting will be far less than the 15 to 20% achieved under the previous government.
The result will only be known in March, after results of a quality check on 800 areas – to be undertaken next month – are analysed. Orkin says a 4% margin of error would be a good result.
He adds, however, that next time – another census is planned in the first year of the next century – staff recruitment will be completed long before the census starts.