Cross-border trade in illicit medication is thriving, with consignments of Zimbabwean contraceptive pills regularly entering South Africa and being snapped up, not just by migrant women but also local women, who say they prefer them.
Plus, they are cheaper, obtainable in South Africa via social media platforms like Facebook Marketplace for as little as R10 to R20 a packet, reports Mail & Guardian.
In Johannesburg, migrant women say they use the smuggled birth control pills because they have no other local options, citing not just language barriers but the barring of undocumented foreign nationals from accessing services at public health centres by vigilante groups like Operation Dudula.
Janet Moyo (not her real name), supplies the pills to clients in the Johannesburg central business district, who then resell them in informal settlements and to migrant communities.
She says she bought the bulk stock from a police officer who confiscated a box full of contraceptive pills from smugglers.
The risk of buying in bulk poses a greater health risk of using pills that have expired or been stored under unsuitable conditions.
The smuggling network, which includes the suppliers of pills from clinics in Zimbabwe and transporters to the South African black market, has thrived despite concerted efforts, including from South African National Defence Force (SANDF) border patrols.
“It’s a challenge to stop smugglers coming into South Africa,” Major Shihlangoma Mahlahlane, of the Joint Technical Operation for Operation Corona, told journalists in 2024 at Ha-Tshirundu, a Limpopo village identified as a hotspot for smuggling goods between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Operation Corona is led by the SANDF at South Africa’s ports of entry to tackle border-related criminal activities.
Zimbabwean pills have few side-effects
Migrant women also opt for smuggled contraceptive pills from Zimbabwe allegedly because of side effects from local pills, supplier Moyo said.
The pills are branded and distributed in Zimbabwe as Secure – a progesterone-only contraceptive – and Control, a combined oral contraceptive pills.
The pills are provided to hospitals and clinics through the National Pharmaceutical Company of Zimbabwe and sold at an affordable fee, while in private pharmacies they sell for $1 for two packs.
Independent researcher Sibonginkosi Dunjana said Zimbabwean women’s beliefs and practices surrounding contraceptives or antenatal care are complex, multi-layered, and characterised by multiple intersections between personal, social and structural factors from both the country of origin and destination.
Mail & Guardian article – Smuggled birth control pills in demand (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Zimbabwe smugglers sell birth control pills illicitly in SA
Medicines smuggling probe after ARVs found at bus crash site
Immigrants turn to thriving black market for medicines
Gauteng clinics still denying treatment for pregnant migrants