24 Mar 2022

Logistical challenges have delayed the census process to start in Molepolole and surrounding areas. 

The national count commenced on March 18 and is expected to last for two weeks but in Kweneng East district the process would commence a week later, according to Statistics Botswana Communications Manager Ms Lillian Mogami. 

Speaking in an interview on Wednesday March 23, Ms Mogami said logistical challenges, primarily configuration of electronic gadgets which was slowed down by connectivity issues at the district, caused the delay of the enumeration process in areas such as Molepolole, Mogonono, Hatsalatladi, Sojwe, Shadishadi, Loologane, Lephepe and other areas in the vicinity,” she said. 

“While a census, helps compile a numerical profile of a country, the rollout of the programme needs careful execution,” she said. 

Therefore, Ms Mogami said that the Kweneng East Census District was considered to be the biggest census district in terms of both enumeration areas and population as recorded in the last Population and Housing Census of 2011. 

This, and the use of technology this time was likely to pose challenges. 

However, she said they expected to start the exercise within a day or two as the challenges were almost fully resolved. 

“Once configured, the gadgets can be used to collect data without network connectivity,” she said emphasizing that the setback in network connectivity would in no way affect data collection. 

Nevertheless, she explained that enumeration was progressing well in most parts of the country. 

For his part, Kweneng East enumeration officer Mr Kabelo Ntopo said in interview that enumerators were ready to kick start the process once the existing challenges were resolved. 

To that effect, around 700 enumerators and over 200 supervisors have been hired in Kweneng East to conduct the census. Ends