Yires urged to check their condoms before sexy time

Youth-led health movement, #Keready, has encouraged Yires to get condoms from healthcare facilities amid concerns over counterfeit condoms being in circulation.

#Keready’s Dr Katlego Lekalakala says there’s a lot of processes that are put in place to ensure that health facilities like clinics and hospitals get the correct product.

However, should one need protection before they get intimate with someone at night, she’s urging Yires to always carefully check the quality of the condoms that they buy.

Dr Lekalakala is urging young people to never use new condoms that weren’t sealed when they bought them.

Last month, the Department of Health received a tip that there were spaza shops in Sunnyside and surrounding areas in Pretoria that were selling counterfeit condoms.

It warned that the condoms posed severe public health risks, including the failure to prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unwanted pregnancies, and HIV/AIDS.

YNews reached out to the Health Department to find out whether it had managed to identify the shops at the centre of the controversy, and its spokesperson, Foster Mohale, said “it appears” that the spaza shops have stopped selling the fake condoms.

Dr Lekalakala explains, in the clip below, why counterfeit condoms are bad.

Sisonke National Sex Workers Movement, has also weighed in on the controversy, urging its members to make use of condoms from their nearest Community Health Centres.

The movement’s Yonela Sinqu says the sale of counterfeit protection devices is no different to the poisonous food that was sold and claimed the lives of at least 23 children last year alone.

Sinqu has also called on government to take a hard stand against anyone caught selling or distributing such condoms.

“We have had issues with the sale of state condoms, which has had a negative impact in curbing the spread of new HIV infections and STIs. As a country we need to take ownership of our government by taking a stand in stopping such acts. We need to report such and follow up on outcomes. These acts need to be punishable with the harshest sentence such as deportation in the event that the owner of the spaza shop is of non-South African descent and be closed.”

Dr Lekalakala says government can get ahead of the crisis by visiting the spaza shops that were reported to be selling these counterfeit condoms and ensure that those found in the wrong are held accountable.