Soweto Sex Survey Shows South Africa's AIDS Challenge

According to a survey released Thursday by the nongovernmental Population Council, 14 percent of men and 18 percent of women in Johannesburg's Soweto townships said they rarely or never use condoms, even with non-regular partners. In addition, more than one-quarter of men and one-tenth of women surveyed said they have multiple sex partners concurrently.

And despite widespread stigma against AIDS patients, the report said that "men who are infected ... attract a kind of respect because they did it straight [used no condoms]." Activists' efforts to promote the use of condoms in long-term relationships are being thwarted by the fact that many people see condom use as an admission -- or an accusation -- of infidelity. "Many men thought women who carry condoms are easy," the report said. One-fifth of women and one-quarter of men said they would be outraged if a partner asked them to use a condom.

Even so, overall condom use among the more than 2,500 people surveyed was actually higher than expected. Forty percent of men and 30 percent of women reported consistently using condoms with regular partners.

The Soweto men surveyed claimed more sexual partners than did the women, yet only one-quarter of men had been tested for HIV, compared to one-half of women. One-third of men admitted hitting their partner, higher than the proportion of women who admitted being hit, and 7 percent of men and 6 percent of women said a man has the right to strike his wife if she refuses him sex. Jane Chege, who presented the findings at a conference in Johannesburg, blamed the violence in part on high unemployment and the legacy of minority white rule.

"In many cases of domestic violence, we find the men are unemployed and the women have work," Chege said, leaving the men feeling "marginalized and angry."

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