OMUTHIYA - The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA)’s Oshikoto regional statistician David Emvula has urged the community to continue providing their full support and cooperation with the second phase of the population and housing census.

He said in an interview with Nampa on Monday that their cooperation will enable the NSA to gather and present accurate results.

“The first phase of the census was somehow difficult, as some people were refusing to be counted as they thought the census was a Swapo Party project. Others refused to be counted while (activist) Michael Amushelelo was behind bars,” he added.

People, he stressed, were completely just refusing to be counted on petty issues, including some commercial farmers who used to lock their entrances.

“They were not scared of hearing they would be fined N$50 000 for refusing to be counted. They only got scared of the police once we went with them,” he said.

Emvula added that there were also complaints about a lack of water, although it did not affect data collection.

“To be honest, the government knows where people require water, although it has been many years since people have cried about water in the Oshikoto region. We do not do anything, we just provide statistics to the government for their planning and execution,” he noted.

Emvula said they always inform the public that the NSA is only responsible for collecting data for the government to plan for the needs of the people in the constituencies.

The Post-Enumeration Survey is conducted after the census enumeration to measure the completeness and quality of the census results.

It started on 6 November, and is set to end on 24 November 2023. - Nampa