Statistics South Africa today, 6 March unveiled retired Proteas star bowler and cricket icon Makhaya Ntini as Census 2011 ambassador.
President Jacob Zuma announced during his State of the Nation Address that Ntini will be one of the census ambassadors. “South Africa will have its third postapartheid census in October this year. We thank Mr Makhaya Ntini for agreeing to become an ambassador of this important campaign,” said Zuma.
Ntini, a respected sportsman and household name, will take the key campaign messages - “Get ready to be counted” and “2011 is the year of the Census” - to the people. All people within the borders of South Africa will be counted, including foreign nationals.
“Ntini’s role as an ambassador will be integral to informing the nation of the upcoming census, which starts on 10 October 2011, said Pali Lehohla, Statistician-General and head of Statistics South Africa.” Lehohla said, “Ntini’s stature, his story of victory over adversity and embracing diversity, and his ready willingness to get the message across to the nation and talk census puts him in good stead to talk sense to South Africa across racial and age groups. Let us talk census and talk sense. He is an ideal candidate for the Census 2011 ambassador programme as he has the ability to mobilise the nation to stand up and be counted.”
Ntini’s ambition to work with schools cricket coincides with our fervent belief that sports has the potential to break the barrier to learning mathematics and statistics and Statistics South Africa has started a programme called Stats4Sports as part of its six-pillar ISIbalo capacity-building drive. Cricket is full of statistical thinking and processes.
The nation will see and hear Ntini on television and radio advertisements. He will also help the organisation reach out to communities through personal appearances at Census 2011 road shows. Ntini will be joined by additional ambassadors in the build-up to the census month.
Enquiries:
Sivuyile Mangxamba
Tel: 012 310 8172
Cell: 082 886 3707
E-mail: SivuyileM@statssa.gov.za
Source: Statistics South Africa
