The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Saturday, August 22, 1992 — Hundreds of people may not be counted as a result of a census regulation stipulating that only those who slept at their homes on the eve of the enumeration exercise should be counted, it has been pointed out.

The Member of Parliament for Makokoba, Cde Sidney Malunga, yesterday said he knew of many people who had not been counted simply because they had not been at their homes on the eve of the census.

Cde Malunga himself was not counted because he was in Harare on the night of the census. When he got home an enumerator declined to count him as he was not at home on the night of August 17.

“It is very distressing to note that some people may not be counted. It makes us wonder whether the results of the census will be accurate”, he said.

Cde Malunga said he knew of one woman who had been to a wake on census night and when she returned home the enumerator declined to count her.

“We would like to know how it was proposed to account for such people. If a person was at a wake. It is something temporary and people staying at the place of the wake cannot be expected to give all the mourners’ details”, he said.

Contacted for comment, the Bulawayo Census team leader, Mr Campion Maxwebo, said the enumerator who declined to count Cde Malunga was right.

He said under the method of enumeration they were using, only those who slept in any given house on the night of the census were to be counted.

Mr Maxwebo said the system was called the de facto method and was employed because it was more accurate.