Pretoria - Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has assured the public that it is ready and well prepared to ensure that everyone within the borders of South Africa is counted in the fourth comprehensive national census from February 2.
Stats SA spokesperson Trevor Oosterwyk said their teams were more than ready to see that everyone was counted, including the homeless community.
Oosterwyk said they had spoken to organisations dealing with homelessness for them to assist with locating the country’s homeless residents.
Gaerth Tarbitt of the Pathways Operational Centre’s Unit for Street Homelessness at the University of Pretoria said while they were grateful that the homeless would be prioritised in the census, they were concerned about stakeholders being roped in at the last minute.
Tarbitt said with the census starting at 10pm on February 2, the fieldworkers may find homeless people either sleeping or having taken some or other substance.
Another issue was that many residents, some of whom did not have documentation or were undocumented, feared the involvement of the Department of Home Affairs and possible deportation, he said.
“The problem is that we are concerned that we were brought in at the last minute, yet there are a lot of issues to consider with counting the homeless. We have to understand the counting methodology, what language they will be using so the residents can also be prepared.
“We’re not necessarily saying that the homeless are violent, but this is like someone waking you up unannounced and trying to conduct an interview with you. So we want to ensure that resources are mobilised for us to be able to get an accurate count.”
Tarbitt said the most important information the census was looking for was a good idea – the number of persons living on the streets with chronic health issues, and more importantly, the number of families living on the streets.
They were hoping for the homeless community to be counted at the end of the month to afford them enough time to inform residents, he said.
Oosterwyk, however, said organisations were not roped in at the last minute intentionally; issues such as Covid-19 and the festive season break had delayed communication with the relevant groups.
“We know that the enumeration date is fast approaching but there was no deliberate ploy to call on organisations at the last minute.
“We've done this thing in the past successfully, hence we know that we may not necessarily reach everyone on the first night. However, we are ready and have made the necessary provisions for that possibility.”
Pretoria News