Nick Mangwana has posted some challenges that are being faced during the ongoing Census 2022. From enumerators being bribed, robbed and attacked to an enumerator in Makoni being drunk while performing her duties, the national census has proven to be a hefty task.
Mangwana encouraged people to welcome the enumerators as they mean no harm and he spoke about specific cases on Twitter with the captions;
āCENSUS CHALLENGES
There are some people in Harare not cooperating with enumerators. Please cooperate.
āļøAn enumerator was chased away by a respondent holding a knife threatening to kill him, in Warren Park. The case was reported to police and the respondent was arrested.
āļøAnother case was of an enumerator who was offered USD150 by Pakistani family in Avondale thinking that he was from the immigration department. Case reported.
āļøAn enumerator in ward 41 was biten by dogs.
āļø In Mandara one case was reported of a respondent who wanted to burnt an enumerator with some hot water.ā
CENSUS CHALLENGES
There are some people in Harare not cooperating with enumerators. Please cooperate.
āļøAn enumerator was chased away by a respondent Ā holding a knife threatening to kill him, in Warren Park. The case was reported to police and the respondent was arrested. pic.twitter.com/vZ09a9C0L4— Nick Mangwana (@nickmangwana) April 24, 2022
Nick Mangwana also spoke about an enumerator who had his recording tablet stolen in Gutu with the caption;
āGUTU
Some robber mugged a #Census2022 supervisor and took the Tablet in Bikita. He was caught trying to sell the gadget in Gutu. This thing has a 2gb storage and surely the risk of being charged with handling stolen property is not worth it. Donāt bother.ā
GUTU
Some robber mugged a #Census2022 supervisor and took the Tablet in Bikita. He was caught trying to sell the gadget in Gutu. This thing has a 2gb storage and surely the risk of being charged with handling stolen property is not worth it. Donāt bother. pic.twitter.com/eUNj5E4UaW— Nick Mangwana (@nickmangwana) April 25, 2022
With all these challenges in mind maybe there should have been more efforts made by the government in educating people fully on what a census is and the purpose of recording the data they need. People could have possibly confused census people with political party people and that could also explain the violence. The exercise has clashed with the pre-election campaigns and possibly left some ignorant people feeling paranoid.