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Mhlaseli Sibangani Mpofu
THE National Aids Council (Nac) reported recently that condom distribution went up last year, an indicator that the high number of condoms distributed, (and probably used properly), was a measurable testimony that the majority of sexually active people could be having protected sex.
Nac’s Director of Monitoring and Evaluation Amon Mpofu said the organisation distributed 104 million male and 5.2 female condoms last year, compared to 28 million distributed in 2013. He said the condom up-take was useful in lowering HIV infections and prevalence rate, but was, however, quick to point out that this was not a clear indicator of consistent use by the sexually active individuals.
It is not the scope of this discussion to find out if, for good measure, the people collecting the condoms do put them to proper and consistent use or not. It is also not my motivation to ponder over the rights and wrongs of condom distribution but I will leave that argument to open conjecture, while, at the same time, bringing forth a poser, pointing out that incidents and reports of illicit sex are carrying the day as stories of family feuds over sexual misadventures appear in our media outlets daily.
It was also reported that nearly 30,000 women applied for maintenance at courts countrywide, a significant increase from the 14,000 who sued their husbands for child support in 2012.
In that shocking revelation, there is mention of a rise in infidelity which, in my view relegates condom use to the last rung of the ladder, more-so given the fact that children are without any measure of doubt produced by those engaging in unprotected sex. It is not my intention to find fault in the two articles in so far as sex issues are concerned, but the reading is loud and clear that there is too much unplanned sex caused by a number of social vices, too many unplanned pregnancies going on, and an unwritten rule that sex has of late become one of the livelihood enhancement options.
Harare lawyer Wellington Pasipanodya was quoted in a recent report saying “people rush into marriages before they really understand each other.” This is testimony enough that the same people engage in sex without condoms of course, bear not one child, but children, later realise they do not love each other and ultimately drag each other to the courts to settle maintenance and other matrimonial issues.
It is therefore not very wrong to assume that there is just too much illicit sexual activity going on around the country, begging the question whether condoms are being collected and used for the purpose they are intended for. Similarly, with alarming levels of maintenance cases, one is left to safely assume that a large number of these pregnancies are not planned, hence the marriage breakdowns referred to in this article earlier.
Indeed, the current maintenance boom or explosion is a glaring indicator of love lost between couples. In that regard, it is assumed that the parting lovers might be forced to seek sexual solace elsewhere, leading us to question if, in this latest round of sexual activity, condoms will be used at all, and that there will not be any unplanned pregnancies that will result in a host of more maintenance cases.
An intimate analysis of newspaper articles, related media outlets and social networks pin-point to a disturbing trend of sexual activity, a pointer that every Tom, Dick and Themba are having sex by whatever means, fair or foul. Of late, a disturbingly high number of rape cases, illicit sex cases among family members, maintenance cases covered acres of space in the media, yet another telling revelation that in a number of these encounters, condom usage might have largely been ignored.
Some of the stories which captured the reader’s eye recently went like, “Boy offers $3 for maintenance,” “Mud prophet jailed for rape,” “Church leader sued for bedding relative’s wife,” “Kombi driver killed for dating married woman,” “Bosso’s Peter Moyo dragged to court over maintenance,” “Blind man nabbed for niece’s rape,” “Man, 38, rapes brother’s girlfriend,15”, and of course the salvo by the Registrar General, Tobaiwa Mudede that Zimbabweans should not use condoms!
From the stories above, one can deduce that sexual activity is so high to an extent that it poses a challenge to the noble activities of condom distribution and other safe sex campaigns being carried out by Nac and its sister organisations. It also follows that the high number of rape cases we read about daily point to a social decadence not experienced in the years gone by, and that with all the social vices we are experiencing today, Facebook and other social networks are providing fertile ground for sexual relationships, condom distributors and behaviour change activists need to up their game to measure up to these fresh challenges.
It is fair to say a number of Aids service organisations such as Nac, Matabeleland Aids Council and others too numerous to mention here have played a critical role in the fight against Aids, leading to the decline of the scourge’s prevalence rate that our country boasts of today. However, it is the rise in the change of the sex game, and the new players, our children, social networks, advertisers, television, broken families and the nagging desire to experiment with sex that will demand that players in the anti-Aids campaign vigorously change tact and go beyond condom distribution.
Expectedly, as people read this article they will grumble and start saying, “does he not know that these days we have such and such packages which complement what we have been doing in the past?” It’s commendable if such and such packages are there but there is need to realise the need for all concerned to design programmes that are all inclusive so that in the long term we arrest illicit sex, rape and see little of the maintenance cases that are eating away our social fabric, giving an impression that we are a sex crazy society.
Let me therefore conclude by appealing to all and sundry to welcome the noble deeds being carried out by Nac and other related organisations, but in similar fashion I invite and implore the public, family members, companies, religious organisations and all concerned that we stand to lose the ground we have covered in so many years of controlling sexual activity, social vices related to sex and the fight against Aids if we do not take heed of issues raised in this article. After all, Aids is everyone’s responsibility.
The writer is a former journalist and currently a development consultant born in Lupane. He has a keen interest in social and community development issues. Email:[email protected].
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