Statistics South Africa officials said some of these nationals were not comfortable among enumerators fearing information they would expose themselves to deportation.
Officials urged Zimbabweans to cooperate as the exercise was not a witch-hunt to detect illegal Zimbabweans.
“Government wants to know the number of people who are in South Africa. As such, the population census aims to count the number of everyone living within these borders. We have had problems, mainly with Zimbabwean nationals, who do not cooperate with the enumerators. They fear the information the give could be used to easily trace and deport them. It is not true that such information would be used against them,” said an official, Stanley Molefe, said during a workshop in Johannesburg.
South Africa, which has resumed deportations of undocumented Zimbabweans in the country following the lifting of a Special Dispensation previously accorded to Zimbabwean nationals, is conducting its third population census since 1994.
The 2011 census forms part of the 2011 round of African censuses, which aim to provide comprehensive data on the continent, for improved planning and to aid development.
Estimates earlier this year put the country’s population at 50,6 million.
Post published in: Africa News