When I asked him what he was doing and why he was erasing, he said his supervisor told him to do this. I asked for a supervisor name, he said "I don't know" . He continued to say "the people made mistakes and I must fix it".
I asked how many forms he was erasing out, he said, "all of them". I asked to see which forms and he would not show me. He would not show me from which street the forms were. He packed them up and put them in his bag. He would not show me what he was erasing and kept saying I must wait for his supervisor...
...How can we trust the results of this survey and how can government do what is right if our forms have been tampered with? I fully understand the reasoning behind a census, if the results and statistics extracted from the information given is true.
However, if any numerator, or anyone else for that matter, is given full authority to erase the answers, be they correct or incorrectly filled in, then that makes this census, null and void and a complete farce. We have wasted time and a lot of money on a census that will not reflect the true results.
If a student at school is asked to complete their examination in pencil and the prefect who is asked to collect the papers has the right to erase anything on the form, from the desk number to the students name, that would be illegal. I want an explanation as to why numerators are allowed to tamper with a legal document.
This is not the first time that we have seen numerators sitting on the side of the road with an eraser in their hands. We spotted three at the boom gates on the corner of Baker Road and Steyn Avenue, Edenglen, Edenvale, I just did not catch them on camera.
Sibongile contacted her superior who was less astute and far more aggressive in his mannerism to me on the telephone. By this point, I had flagged down a passing police vehicle and asked for their assistance.
They agreed with me that it was unacceptable for the document to be erased and they too agreed that if the census forms are being scanned electronically, it would kick out errors, which become inadmissible.
I threatened to go to the media with the evidence in hand, the superior said, "I am giving you the go-ahead to go to the media". I asked for his name, he refused to give it to me. He kept provoking me for my name. I gave him my name, he responded, "I will not give you my name".
