Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha is urging all citizens to participate in the census as it will assist in the allocation of resources.
Premier Mathabatha was counted by StatsSA at his home in Toseng outside Lebowakgomo.
StatsSA began with the counting of homeless people at the Beitbridge border at midnight on Wednesday. Over 13 000 field workers are expected to continue visiting households until the 28 of February.
Rolling blackouts have lead to delays in the start of the Census 2022 at the Beitbridge Border:
The census in Limpopo started at Beitbridge border post in Musina where field-workers have been counting people who are migrating.
Premier Mathabatha also participated in the census on the first day when he, and his family were counted at Toseng outside Lebowakgomo.
“What StatsSA has embarked upon, it helps us to plan with all the data. When I plan for a village like Toseng, I already know how many people are here, how many are sleeping without food, what kind of resources do they have, when we plan for spatial development for example.”
Limpopo StatsSA Manager, Nthambeleni Mukwevho says the challenges of load shedding and poor network connection is hindering their progress.
“We had cliches at first, but we can relate that to load shedding and our systems are network dependent, and if there is no network there is no power, then we can have issues here. We are also ensuring that we can conduct this work offline. The moment there is network, we can get the data and submit it online but collection happens even when there is no network.”
Limpopo presently has just over six million people, and this census is expected to indicate an increase from that.
