Census 2011 process on track - Manuel

2012-05-15 22:49

Cape Town - The 2011 Census field operations have been successfully concluded, with more than 14 million dwellings or households visited in 103 000 enumeration areas, Planning Commission Minister Trevor Manuel said on Tuesday.

Stats SA was processing the 14 million returns in an operation that continued non-stop 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, he told the National Assembly during debate on his budget vote.

"The purpose of having the 1 200 members of staff working shifts to complete this incredible undertaking is to ensure that the data is available for use sooner rather than later.

"It is obviously important that in completing this task we are assured of the quality of the data collected and collated."

In this regard, the Statistics Council, which had the legal responsibility to manage the quality of the statistics being produced, had appointed both local and international experts to undertake the evaluation, he said.

The experts, who had already received a 5% sample and had started the evaluation, included Prof Rob Dorrington, Prof Tom Moultrie, Dr Kenneth Hill, Prof Eric Udjo, Prof Carel van Aardt, Dr Griffith Feeny, Prof Julian May, Dr Jeremiah Banda and Prof Charles Simkins.

As part of the quality assurance process, an independent Post-Enumeration Survey (PES) was conducted, where a representative sample of the country was sampled using a shorter questionnaire.

The variables of this survey would be compared to the census to assist with the evaluation of any possible under or over-counting.

Current indications were that the results would be released by the end of September.

"In order to ensure that the data gathered in this massive operation is easily available, information will be released using a wide range of platforms such as hard copies, electronically, on social networking sites and through the media," Manuel said.

- SAPA