Some people argue that no one really uses them ‘in the heat of the moment’. Others say they just don’t like the artificialness that they bring to what should be a ‘natural’ experience – sex. “It’s like eating a sweet with its wrapper still on, or an unpeeled banana,” so they say.

But like them or hate them, use them or avoid them, the possibility of not having condoms at all as an HIV prevention option is a very serious issue with very real implications for those who do choose to make use of them.

And if recent reports from South Africa of condom stock-outs in the Free State province’s public hospitals are anything to go by, the likelihood of such an occurrence is more real than one might want to imagine.

In an article carried by the PlusNews HIV analysis service, it was revealed that some South African clinics are reporting complete condom stock-outs owing to what a Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) representative described as a severe shortage of human resources, as well as weak distribution networks and budget shortages.

These stock-outs obviously violate a basic human right – the right to health, and its various options. For, much as their use and comfort may be debated, condoms constitute an impotent component towards realising the sexual and reproductive health rights of all people. Not having access to them limits one’s health options in a similar way that not having access to ARVs (if one is HIV positive and in need of them) does.

Yet with condoms costing much less to produce than ARVs, it is simply much more affordable – for governments, donors, non-profit and commercial sectors – to prevent, rather than treat HIV.

For this reason, and the ones to follow, stock-outs are completely unacceptable.

The next reason to bear in mind is that condoms play a dual prevention role in that they can be used to both prevent pregnancies, as well as to prevent  transmission of HIV and STIs. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), of an estimated 10.4 billion male condoms used worldwide in 2005, around 4.4 billion were used for family planning and 6 billion for HIV prevention.

But their efficacy is premised upon correct and CONSISTENT use, which is why stock-outs in the public health care sector present such a major challenge to sexual and reproductive health efforts. It is indeed a tragedy that many of the countries with the highest global HIV prevalence rates harbour some of the world’s poorest communities who cannot afford to purchase condoms and therefore rely solely on those that are freely provided, or sold to them at subsidised prices. For these people, stock-outs spell danger because while condoms may still be available to them via the private sector (such as supermarkets and pharmacies), the commercial brands sold there would be far too expensive, and therefore beyond their financial reach.

What stock-outs essentially mean is that people could become infected not through a lack of knowledge, but perhaps largely through a lack of financial resources to purchase prevention tools.

Nobody equipped with information about HIV and AIDS today should become infected, or re-infected. Nobody should have to seek out means of prevention and fail to find them, especially at a time when the theme around prevention is becoming evermore-dominant in global discourse around the HIV pandemic.

Stock-outs of condoms should never happen. It is too blatant a theft of one’s rights to sexual and reproductive autonomy.

Effective planning and budgetary allocation of funds towards procurement of sufficient quantities of condoms should be carried out by all governments and key stakeholders to prevent any shortfalls in supply. This should be bolstered by regular monitoring and evaluation of trends in sexual behaviour and activity of populations. This is crucial  for as people begin to engage in sexual activity at an ever-earlier age, as well as learn about the dual efficacy of condoms (as discussed earlier), and also disregard previously held misconceptions about them, it follows that demand for condoms will rise. Supplies based on the sexual habits of a population five or ten years ago will not suffice.

And nor will moralistic debates pitting abstinence as ‘good’ against pre-marital sex as its ‘evil’ opponent.

Governments must also put in place policing measures to ensure against corruption in the supply and distribution chain of condoms to public health facilities. While it is well acknowledged that theft and other forms of corruption take place in the supply and distribution of the more lucrative essential medicines (such as ARVs and painkillers), it is important to investigate if the same underhand dealings are also taking place with condoms.

Ultimately, the argument presented here is not about what people do – or should do – with condoms. It is simply about equipping them with the option to choose.

We got this report yesterday from a subscriber in Harare. If you have witnessed similar harassment, or know others who have, please email info [at] kubatana [dot] net.

This afternoon at about 2.30pm I saw vendors scattering in all directions dropping their vegetables and running for their lives.  The scene was just off 7th Avenue in Harare next to Greenwood Park.  All but one vendor got away.  I pulled up next to the plain clothes men who called themselves “policemen” and asked them what they thought they were doing handcuffing this obviously terrified young man still holding a packet of carrots. He knows his fate. He will be taken to the Police station where they will beat the hell out of him.

We have 90% unemployment and now the police (?) militia (?) are hell bent on depriving people from earning an honest living.

The “police” told me it had nothing to do with me and that “according to the Kariba Draft constitution no one is allowed to sell anything without a licence”.  They were rude, arrogant and threatening and typical of what we in Zimbabwe have now come to expect from the so called “law makers”.

I mean, hello.  It’s okay for state agents and the so called law enforcers to overtly steal the country’s diamond wealth, loot the reserve bank, steal farms and farm equipment, but it’s illegal to attempt to make an honest living vending vegetables.  We are right back into the 2005 Operation Murambastvina.  Note the timing.

This is the beginning of what Zanu PF will no doubt dub “Operation Accept the Kariba Draft” – and it will be done in the only way that Zanu PF know how, through violence, torture and abuse.

Perhaps we need to counteract it with VOZU – Vendors of Zimbabwe Unite!  Stand up for your rights, this is your last chance!

An IRIN headline caught my eye this morning: Militaries unite to fight HIV.

The article discusses the launch of the Regional HIV Network of Military Forces in West and Central Africa, a network for military forces to combat HIV within their ranks, and in their surrounding communities. As the article points out, with the exception of Ethiopia, “A number of studies on HIV prevalence rates among sub-Saharan Africa’s armed forces have shown higher rates than in civilian populations.”

And yet, most African militaries have been reluctant to develop programmes that effectively address this challenge. A few excellent reports, notably Alex de Waal’s Fucking Soldiers and Martin Rupiya’s study for the Institute for Security Studies – The enemy within: Southern African militaries’ quarter-Century battle with HIV and AIDS, look at some of the reasons behind this resistance.

As in other sectors of society, some of the reasons why HIV/AIDS is not adequately tackled within the armed forces include ignorance, fear, stigmatisation and stereotyping. For example, in Ghana, “new recruits who test positive are not admitted into the armed forces. A similar ban in South Africa was overturned by the courts in 2008.”

At one presentation at the launch of the regional HIV network, a doctor with Ghana’s armed forces said that soldiers are provided with condoms in the military barracks there.  In response, echoing a classic argument against distributing condoms in schools,  Senegal’s Minister of Armed Forces, Becaye Diop, asked: “But by giving them condoms, are you not encouraging promiscuity?”

Seems like a sensible idea to me.

The reluctance of governments and international organisations to donate funds directly to the Zimbabwe state as presently constituted, as opposed to making laudable donations to non-governmental organisations, is understandable. But why not appoint one of the top four auditing firms represented in Zimbabwe to receive and manage all funding from governments and international organisations? Read more

Ten kilometres out of Chegutu the melancholic sign post for none other than “Madzongwe Road” tells a story in itself. It is the road to our farm. The sign is bent and faded and tired looking. Maybe it looks a bit like us. If the Prime Minister were to turn off here, the first white-owned farm he would come to belongs to Retief Benade. This farm, like every other, is also under siege. There is no chance of police assistance for the farmer here as the invader is a senior policeman himself. What else can one expect in what has become a police state? Mr Benade realised he would not win. In desperation, last month, he sold his entire beef and dairy herd of a few hundred animals, including his breeding cows. They did not go to another breeder, they went for slaughter. No one buys breeding herds in countries where investments are not protected. Breeding herds are long-term investments – phenomena that have become obsolete in the Zimbabwe of today. Mr Benade has taken his expertise to Zambia. To go elsewhere in Zimbabwe would be asking for trouble. The farm invasions are wide-spread. That is the undeniable truth.

Read Zimbabwean farmer Ben Freeth’s request that Morgan Tsvangirai wake up and speak the truth here

Stand by your beliefs stand firm even if  you stand t o lose your very livelihood.
When your enemy is down kick in the teeth repeatedly.
Choose a very public forum to insult you enemies; do a good and thorough job of it.
That way you divert attention from your transgressions.
You are always right it’s everyone else who is wrong.
If they don’t agree with you to hell with them who do they think they are.
Pretend to agree with some of your opponents.
When they gain your trust.
Stab them in the back.