By Lerato Ndlovu
Zimbabwe’s preparations for the 2022 paperless national population census are currently underway, paving way for the forthcoming 2023 elections.
At a post cabinet media briefing, Information Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa said the preparations had been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Honourable Professor Mthuli Ncube gave an update to the cabinet on the 2022 Zimbabwe National Population Census and stated that, in spite of preparations for the exercise having been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the country remains on course to conduct the Census within the prescribed time frame for the 2023 Elections.
“The Census is a Constitutional requirement for the delimitation of constituency boundaries by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), we expect the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works to conclude the boundary proclamations for Wards, Districts and Provinces in order to ensure that enumeration areas are correctly assigned, thereafter the Census Field Mapping Exercise can be finalised before actual enumeration proceeds.
“Census field mapping involves subdividing the whole country into smaller geographical units called enumeration areas with an average of 80 to 120 households,” she said. “Cabinet is pleased to report that 55% of the country has so far been successfully mapped, despite up to 10 months of programmed time having been lost to COVID-19 restrictions”.
She added that this would be the first time the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency (ZIMSTAT) will go paperless during census enumeration, and employ a computer assisted data collection method.
“For the first time in the history of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency (ZIMSTAT) will go paperless during census enumeration since the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) technique will be employed during data collection.
“Given that this is the first time Zimbabwe will use the paperless CAPI technique, more than one pilot census will be run to test the technology, with re-tests being conducted, this will last up to the first quarter of 2022.
“The actual population census will therefore start in April 2022, with the Census results expected in August 2022, paving way for the Constituencies Delimitation in October 2022 (31 December 2022 being the last day allowed for delimitation)”.
