Govt agency slams ‘relevance seeking’ RG

via Govt agency slams ‘relevance seeking’ RG 16 July 2014

THE Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) on Wednesday accused Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede of sabotaging its work after he called on Zimbabweans to shun contraceptives.

Mudede torched a storm recently when he told a Family of God Church gathering in Kambuzuma, Harare, that contraceptives were a ploy by powerful Western nations to control population growth in Africa and weaken the continent.

He said contraceptives were also to blame for diseases such as cancer among women and urged Zimbabweans to shun them.

But speaking at the official launch of the Family Planning Advocacy in Harare on Wednesday, ZNFPC’s director for technical services, Dr Edmore Munongo, accused Mudede of seeking cheap publicity.

He said sometimes “people can be misled by those who want to divert people from real issues of their life for the benefit of creating controversy”.

“This process, honourable minister, comes at a time when some sections of society have taken it upon themselves to misinform the nation about the benefits of family planning,” he said.

“All those in family planning must therefore work extra hard to give the correct information. The information we have to give must be backed by scientific evidence.”

In 2012, Zimbabwe attended the London Family Planning 2020 meeting which sought to map ways of increasing access to family planning services and agreed to start implementing the recommendations of the meeting.

Dr Munongo said his organisation was aligning the conference’s demand with the country’s economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset).

According to government records most cases of maternal deaths recorded in Zimbabwe are caused by unwanted pregnancies which come as a result of the non-availability of contraceptives.