Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - June 15, 1995

An Aids awareness worker has been fired -- for showing people how to use a condom.

Chrys Matubatuba, 31, an Aids awareness co-ordinator for the South African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) says his demise began last year after he invited a colleague to observe a demonstration at one of his Aids workshops. The demonstration showed people how to place a condom over a plastic penis.

Matubatuba says the colleague had previously complained about his approach, so he wanted her to see how he dealt with the issue.

"She later lodged a complaint with bishops at the annual plenary session held in Pretoria in January this year, describing the demonstration in detail. As an advocate of natural family planning, she said our approaches were clashing as she is preaching celibacy and abstinence," Matubatuba explained.

Last week, after four months of wrangling and a great deal of correspondence on the matter, Matubatuba received a letter terminating his three-year service with the SACBC. His contract would have expired in

An extract from the letter -- from Brother Jude Pieterse, the bishops' representative investigating the case -- states the primary reason for Matubatuba's dismissal as: "The manner in which you have handled the condom issue at Aids workshops has been the primary cause of the loss of confidence in you on the part of the bishops, and has placed the employment relationship in jeopardy."

Defending his position, Matubatuba says the Catholic Church does not have a clear stand on the use of condoms as an Aids prevention method. In 1993 he had submitted a report to the SACBC voicing his concern over the lack of moral guidelines on the issue of condoms and Aids, which he said was obstructing his

'What is really amazing is that I learned of the condom demonstration at one of SACBC's training workshops. It was shown to me by a Catholic nun. I did not devise this method and the equipment was donated by Aids awareness agencies," he added.

Commenting on the dismissal, Brother Jude stressed that the Catholic Church did not condone the use of condoms.

"The bishops had problems with Matubatuba's approach and in the light of this we had no option but to dismiss him. We have gone through the right procedures to resolve this matter in the last four months. As a result of his misrepresentations and misinterpretations we ended up with a total breakdown of our labour relationship. He has, in fact, by his own actions put himself out of his job."

A British Catholic newspaper The Tablet, discussing the controversy of the churches' stand on the condom issue, quotes opposing views in their April 15-22 issue.

According to the paper, French Cardinal Robert Coffy said the use of a condom was permissible to prevent the spread of Aids. But the head of the Vatican delegation, Archbishop Renato Martino, was quoted as condemning the use of condoms in Aids prevention programmes.

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