The 2010 CENSUS—Recruiting Enumerators

By Wesley Ngwenya
I have been privileged to have previously participated in the Population and Housing Census of 1990. I was only grade eleven by then. Those of us who were recruited were purely given the jobs on merit. There could have been a few who were there because they knew someone. Overall, the recruiting was very transparent where we even had to write a test as part of the interview process. I remember the K4000 I made that August holiday was so sweet. It was my first salary ever.

Twenty years later the ball game has changed. There are hundreds of thousands more people who are unemployed and are interested in participating either as Enumerators or as Supervisors. The selection process has equally changed. Now, it is done through District Commissioners who are appointed by the president and oftentimes belong to the ruling party.

In Lusaka alone, over five thousand applications were submitted to the DC’s office. According to my source, the MMD through the Lusaka Province Chairman, William Banda, submitted about two thousand names. Then there were ministers, deputy ministers, permanent secretaries and the like who each brought about five names. In the end, the job winners were only two thousand—a coincidence to the two thousand names submitted by “honorable” Banda? I don’t think so.

In Kafue, over nine hundred applications were submitted and only less than three hundred selected. I am sure there is a similar pattern, with statistics, all over the country as far as the number of applications submitted and those accepted. Is this telling us something on the state of affairs in this country? Yes, it does. The unemployment rate has risen so much in this country to uncontrollable levels.

One young man who applied as an Enumerator in Lusaka showed me his grade twelve results. He had all distinctions. He met all the other requirements. Does it mean all those given the jobs had the same or better results than this young man? I very much doubt that. The lack of jobs in Zambia has left many people wonder about on the streets doing nothing. Many of these people are told to do something. What can they do if they cannot access finance, have no housing, have no food, etc? Many graduates are languishing the streets hoping someone can give them a buck or two. Meanwhile, their so called president and his buddies are busy flying all over and telling us there is no money.