Get counted to ensure the City of Cape Town gets its fair share of budget allocations from the national government in the next financial year. This was the call made by Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis to Cape Town residents.
City of Cape Town residents have until Friday, 30 April to ensure that they are counted in the 2022 census.
Hill-Lewis said Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has found that while the national participation rate is 83,8%, the Western Cape comes in at 49%.
“If Census underreports the population of the Western Cape and by extension the City of Cape Town, national budget allocations will be misaligned to the real population figures, and insufficient to meet the needs of our residents in terms of access to basic services,” he said.
He said it is important that everyone makes every effort to ensure that as many Capetonians as possible are counted. “As the City of Cape Town, we have an important role to play in the census, and each Capetonian and their household must be accurately counted. I appeal to every Capetonian to ensure that they are counted,” he said.
An extension for the province has been granted until the end of this week, with online data collection being re-opened, technical staff increased and additional management support provided.
Stats SA project director, Calvin Molongoana, said the country’s socio-economic dynamics have changed a lot since the last census was conducted in 2011. “Government and businesses need accurate information in order to plan, and the census is the only source of population and housing data at a local level. The more people who participate, the more accurate the data,” he said.
Census is a benchmark count of the entire population of South Africa. The collected information provides the basis of most social and population data produced by Stats SA and other organisations and ensures that each city and province gets its fair share of budget allocations from the national government.
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Jail time or a hefty fine for those who refuse to be counted for population census
Picture: Twitter/@StatsSa
