Mpumalanga men to get 20 free condoms per month

29 May 2015 - 12:01 By Mandla Khoza
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Image: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

All men living in Mpumalanga will receive 20 free condoms every month, says provincial health MEC Gillion Mashego.

Delivering his department's R9,9 billion policy and budget speech on Thursday afternoon, Mashego said the department is also aiming to promote the usage of female condoms, which have not been made popular.

"In the male condom distribution, 2014/2015 has been a success. Our plan is to ensure that each and every male has a supply of 20 condoms per month. Surely, there's no excuse for unprotected sex," said Mashego.

"We must also admit that we have not done enough to market the female condoms in the previous financial year. In this financial year, we will strengthen our marketing strategy to popularise the female condoms."

Mashego added that the department wants to have 150,000 males circumcised in the 2015/2016 financial year.

"Our plan is to continue to work with the general practitioners and traditional initiation schools' surgeons, through Ingoma forum to increase access to voluntary male medical circumcision services," said Mashego.

Mashego said the department has budgeted R251,078,000 for administration, with R6,2 billion aimed at district health services while R1,1 billion will be spent on provincial hospitals and additional R1 billion for central hospital services.

Democratic Alliance member of the provincial legislature Jane Sithole welcomed the budget on emergency services, but criticised the cutting of staff training budget.

"We believe if staff are well trained we can have more success including lessening the litigation that the department constantly faces," said Sithole.

-African Eye News Service

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