Johannesburg - Thinking of sex? Think bananas, purple grapes, red strawberries or just plain vanilla.
Safe doesn’t have to be boring.
So the Department of Health is helping to spice up people’s sex lives with scented and coloured condoms. Starting this month, the state is spending R3.5 billion over the next three years to keep people safe.
That’s for the new contracts for 3 billion male condoms, 54 million female condoms and 60 million sachets of lubricant over the next three years, to be handed out free at more than 4 000 sites countrywide.
The department is buying them from companies with names that include Fulloutput and Bliss.
Three-quarters of the male condoms are coloured and scented (not flavoured) and the rest are natural latex masked with vanilla scent.
Of every 1 billion male condoms, this is what was on the department’s shopping list:
* 250 million natural coloured condoms masked with vanilla scent.
* 250 million yellow condoms with banana scent.
* 250 million purple condoms with grape scent.
* 250 million red condoms with strawberry scent.
The scent-free water-based lubricant is to be handed out free with the condoms.
“We know that condoms are one of the surest (apart from abstaining from sex) ways of preventing sexual transmission of HIV,” said Dr Yogan Pillay, a deputy director-general at the national Department of Health. “Hence the big push to ensure the department makes condoms freely available to the public.”
To encourage people to use condoms, the department did a bit of research into what people wanted.
“We were informed that colours and scented condoms would be more appealing. Hence the decision to put out a tender for coloured and scented male condoms (banana, grape and strawberry),” Pillay added.
The grape-coloured and scented condoms were launched in March in Soweto, targeting college and university students, and the other two colours will be launched later this year.
The CHOICE condom – the government-issue brand – will also be rebranded and relaunched later this year.
The Star