20 Mar 2022

The first family, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi and First Lady Neo Masisi were the first to be enumerated when the 2021 Population and Housing Census commenced on Friday.

Speaking from State House, Dr Masisi encouraged and urged all to welcome enumerators into their households to enable them to carry out the exercise.

He said the questions posed were simple to understand and therefore encouraged everybody to exercise patience in answering them.

Dr Masisi said the census was important for planning and developing the country as it gave an idea of the number of people in a designated area. Ms Maipelo Bathokebafe, an enumerator who interviewed the first family shared her experience.

 “It was an exciting experience to interview the President and his wife,” she said adding that they were welcoming and made her job easy.

Ms Bathokebafe appealed to everybody to have the same spirit and welcome enumerators into their homes with open arms.

Statistician general, Dr Burton Mguni explained that preparations for the census countrywide were running smoothly and that challenges encountered were being managed. 

He urged all to answer appropriately and honestly the questions posed. Dr Mguni said enumerators were expected to start work 6:30am and end 8pm though negotiations between enumerators and home owners were possible in the event the exercise was not completed the previous day.

Taglined #Mpala, Ke Botlhokwa, the census ends on March 31. 

It is carried out every 10 years to determine location of social amenities such as schools and hospitals and for formulation of development policies and programmes, including size and magnitude of projects and their budget.

Other key uses of census information are constituency delimitation and business planning by different industries. ends