13 Feb 2022

 The Selebi Phikwe community has been urged to participate in the upcoming national population and housing census billed for March 18-31.
Statistics Botswana Stakeholder Relations Manager, Mr Temba Sibanda recently told members of the District Census Publicity Committee in Selebi Phikwe that it was critical for all stakeholders to have a common understanding of the census and understand why certain processes and questions were being asked.
He said the census was a large scale national project carried out every 10 years, with the aim to provide information for evidence based development planning, making administrative and policy decisions and baseline for research works undertaken by institutions, organisations, businesses and individuals.
The census, Mr Sibanda said,  would cover all areas where people resided, including cities, towns, villages, lands and cattle posts and urged members of the community give enumerators information, as whatever they shared would be confidential.
He said everybody should be taken on board, adding that politicians also had keen interest in the exercise as it paved way for the delimitation process held every 10 years.
Mr Sibanda explained that house to house enumeration  would run from 6am to 8pm, urging members of the public to expect enumerators during those hours.
To fast track the process, he said this year’s exercise would embrace the use of digital technological applications, adding that the exercise is expected to be completed within 10 days.
He further urged members of the committee to liaise with Statistics Botswana publicity officers for support on matters of census publicity.
The committee, he said was responsible for informing and preparing the general public on the activities of the census within the districts.
Mr Sibanda said the committee was expected to update full council, Urban Development Committee, Village Development Committee, Parliament’s office, District Health Committee, Parents Teachers Associations, farmers associations, churches and other key local stakeholders about key census milestones. ENDS