A sparkling, bright blue cap, and a mask for the nose and mouth await visitors at the main door. Before being let into the building, visitors are also handed a pair of nylon socks to cover their shoes: mandatory attire for touring Africa’s only condom manufacturing firm.
MK Vinod, a technician who boasts of 20 years experience in condom manufacturing, said on Monday that other condom companies in Africa do not manufacture the prophylactics. They either import, assemble or package them.
But, the Kohrs Medical Supplies condom factory in Boksburg, about an hour’s drive from South Africa’s commercial hub of Johannesburg, produces 30-million condoms a year.
“From next year we shall start producing 300-million a year,” Vinod says.
In August the factory will relocate to a larger site in the south-eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, where it will increase its workforce from 100 to 450. This week, it also launched a range of condoms under the brand name “Choice”, which the government will be promoting to South Africans between the ages of 18 and 35.
Speaking at the launch on Monday, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said studies had found that “the old government condoms were far less attractive or user-friendly than those sold in the pharmacy”.
“Condoms should not only be a necessity but they should be seen as sexy and part of fun,” she added.
Tshabalala-Msimang said South Africans had also lost faith in the “old government condoms”.
“There is a widespread public perception that government condoms are of inferior quality compared to commercial brands that you buy in shops or pharmacies. This perception emanated from the fact that prior to 1998, there was no effective quality assurance programme in place to ensure high quality,” she noted.
“Since then the quality standard of our condoms has been set by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).”
“All production batches of government condoms are compliance tested, regardless of which factory produces [them]. This is done in accordance with the most stringent World Health Organisation and National Department of Health standards, and specifications set by the SABS,” Tshabalala-Msimang explained.
She said “Choice” condoms were being promoted to South Africans between the ages of 18 and 35 because of the high HIV infection rate in this population group.
And, the name of the brand appears to be a key part of these promotion efforts.
“Living in the 21st century is all about choices -‒ choice of cell phones, choice of a variety of TV and radio station, choices of different branded foods. It is about discovering, experimenting, changing and making informed choices,” she observed.
Tshabalala-Msimang urged South Africans to use condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancies and as protection against sexually-transmitted illnesses, including HIV.
About five-million people, or ten percent of South Africa’s population, are living with HIV/Aids, according to the Treatment Action Campaign -‒ a pressure group that campaigns for free antiretroviral drugs.
Condom use is growing in South Africa. While government distributed 276-million condoms in 2001 and 2002, about 303-million were issued -‒ free of charge -‒ in 2003 and 2004.
Kohrs Medical Supplies also has its sights set on markets further afield, especially those in the 14 states that make up the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Condoms will play an important role in slowing the advance of Aids in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland -‒ where according to a 2003 United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) report, one in four adults is infected with HIV.
Nine SADC states have populations where more than 10% of adults between the ages of 15 and 49 years were living with HIV and Aids at the end of 2002, says the Joint UN Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids).
The outlook for young people is particularly break. There are now about four million children orphaned by Aids in the SADC region, with Zambia registering the highest number of orphans in the world, according to Unicef.
The pandemic is proving to be equally devastating elsewhere in Africa. UNAids says that in 2003, about 28-million people (or 70%) of the almost 40-million infected with HIV were living in sub-Saharan Africa. – IPS