Condoms tender: How Barrs Medical got lucky with its lube

Barrs Medical, the white-owned company that was awarded 45% of the R3.5 billion tender, has four directors who have been the health department’s go-to guys for condoms since at least 2008.

One of its directors is David Sepel (90) who investigative reporting organisation uSpiked found lives in the state of California in the US. He resides in Irvine County, where many lavish homes and the University of California are situated.

Another director is Gabriel Norwitz (72) who lives in Israel. Barrs Medical director and spokesperson Joe Morris said Norwitz moved to Israel to be closer to his children.

Morris and the remaining director, George Michael, are based in Cape Town and run the company’s local interests, as well as Sekunjalo Investments and two other South African companies the four own.

Sekunjalo was the first South African company to distribute female condoms and was given distribution rights by the Female Health Company. It was the only distributor in southern Africa at the time.

Sekunjalo continued supplying the department for several years until the tender for female condoms was awarded to a KwaZulu-Natal company that procured condoms not approved by the World Health Organisation. They were manufactured in China from polyurethane, not the required nitrile latex.

Sekunjalo was awarded the tender after it successfully challenged the State Tender Board’s award to the KwaZulu-Natal company.

But this year, for the first time, the four decided to use their dormant company, Barrs Medical, to bid for the condom tender. Morris said that even though Sekunjalo was awarded previous condom contracts, they were at liberty to use another company name for the next condom tender.

“Sekunjalo is still completing its previous contract (R47.2 million) signed in 2013 and ending in 2015. We will deliver on the new one as well. There is no overlap or anything,” he said.

He said the four shareholders switched to a different company to bid for this tender “because the shareholders didn’t think the condom business was profitable any more”.

“But then they changed their minds and we submitted the bids,” he said.

Morris said he was aware that although they had received the highest scores on most of the bids without any black directors or representation, they might not be so lucky the next time