Recognition for traditional healers
Nombini Matomela
15 September 2004
The Traditional Health Practitioners Bill, that recognises and regulates the practice of South Africa's traditional healers, has been unanimously approved by Parliament.
Addressing the National Assembly during debate on the bill last week, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said the bill would affirm the dignity and respect of this section of the health sector.
She said the absence of regulation and development had had a negative effect on traditional health practitioners and their patients.
"There were no precedents to follow except our general understanding of how other health practitioners are regulated, and the information provided by traditional health practitioners", she said.
Tshabalala-Msimang said the Bill recognises the unique circumstances of traditional healers, sets professional and ethical norms and standards, and seeks to empower traditional health practitioners to regulate their practices.
About
200 000 traditional health practitioners are set to benefit from the legislation. The Department of Health estimates that close to 70% of South Africans consult traditional healers.
The minister said formal legal recognition of the practice of traditional medicine had a number of benefits for practitioners and their patients.
In terms of the Medical Schemes Act, she said schemes could only pay for health services rendered by a registered health practitioner. Once the new Bill become law, traditional healers would be able to apply for registration and to claim fees from the medical aid schemes of their patients.
"Another advantage is that genuine practitioners can be distinguished from the charlatans", she said, adding that only those who were properly skilled would be registered.
Tshabalala-Msimang said her department would develop regulations in collaboration with traditional healers through an interim traditional health practitioners' council, which would
regulate four kinds of practitioners: diviners (sangomas), herbalists (izinyangas), traditional birth attendants, and traditional surgeons (iingcibi).
The body will also act as a watchdog against "quacks". Only registered healers will be able to practice medicine, and they will be barred from diagnosis or treatment of terminal diseases such as HIV-Aids and cancer.
The minister said the majority of traditional healers consulted during the development of the Bill were eager to have their practices regulated and recognised by the government.
The Bill will be referred to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence, after which it will be gazetted and signed into law by President Thabo Mbeki.
Source: BuaNews
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