Zimbabwe Official: Fewer Condoms Means More Soldiers

A top Zimbabwe official told Zimbabweans to stop using condoms because they were a ploy by powerful countries to slow Africa’s population growth rate and will weaken the nation.

Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede, a close ally to Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, went on a rant against using contraception to a church gathering on Sunday.

The Herald, a state-run newspaper, quoted Mudede saying that if people keep using condoms Zimbabwe will not have enough people to become soldiers and fend off a potential future attack from a foreign enemy.

“Where are you going to get soldiers should there be an aggression? We want police officers, workers, nurses. If you are to ask young people today how many children they have, you would hear them responding proudly, ‘just two,’” said Mudede.

Mudede added that he knew his remarks would be controversial but that, “You want to be a superpower, but you do not want to multiply.”

Mudede, who is in charge of Zimbabwe’s census and elections, explained that he had recently written a book on population control, and his extensive research demonstrated that contraception is dangerous to health.

He argued that condoms increased the spread of diseases such as cancer, especially in women, and that his niece had recently died of cancer caused by contraception.

“You want an injection or a tablet to interfere with that natural process created by God?” Mudede said.

Mudede is a controversial figure in Zimbabwe and has been criticized for corruption, falsifying election results, and human rights violations in the past. He is a high-ranking member of the government and has been registrar-general in Zimbabwe for the past 34 years.

Despite Mudede’s fears, population growth in Zimbabwe has been increasing at a 1.1 percent rate over the past 10 years.

Zimbabwe has a nearly 15 percent rate of HIV/AIDS, but known cases have been on the decline in recent years — which many have attributed to shifting attitudes towards condom use.

Zimbabwe’s Minister of Health and Child Care Dr. David Parirenyatwa voiced his opposition to Mudede’s remarks, saying that contraception is encouraged as a means to fight HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies.

"Condoms have been the biggest factor in the successes we have heard in the country in terms of family planning, avoidance of unwanted pregnancies, and reduction of new HIV infections. So as a ministry we call on people to continue using them where necessary," Parirenyatwa said.

Follow Olivia Becker on Twitter: @obecker928

Photo via Wikimedia