Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za
12 November 2024 | 10:33 a.m. CAT
2-minute read

The new rules, which were published in June and expected to be implemented at the beginning of next year, are meant to provide formal regulations for the industry and set standards for traditional healers’ training and practice. Under the new regulations, izangoma (diviners) and other traditional healers will have to register with the interim Traditional Health Practitioners Council.

Traditional healers have welcomed the move, which means that they will no longer have to operate underground. Additionally, the regulations will reduce the number of people professing to be sangomas.

“For a long time, traditional healers had been operating underground. That is why the industry is vulnerable to bogus healers,” Sipokazi Fokazi, the senior health news reporter for the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism told Radio Islam.

Traditional healing in South Africa was historically outlawed as a form of witchcraft under the Witchcraft Suppression Act until it was formally recognised in 2007 when the Health Practitioners Act was passed.

Fokazi said that the new rules, which will be of great benefit to traditional healthcare patients, will provide oversight in the same way that the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and the South African Nursing Council does for other healthcare professionals in the country.

Registration will include a once-off and annual fee of R1000 and R500 respectively, which traditional healers have said needs to be reduced. They argue that they do not earn as much as modern healthcare professionals.

A large proportion of South Africans rely on traditional healers for healthcare, with 70% of citizens, particularly in rural areas, visiting sangomas first before seeking medical care. A large proportion do not visit health facilities at all. Reasons for this include easy access to traditional healthcare, confidence in the treatment provided, and increased privacy.

“[Sangomas and traditional healers] are trusted more, they have established themselves there, so people have easy access and they feel there is more privacy. Unlike, for instance, going to a clinic where there’s long queues and so-and-so is going to see that I have this particular ailment,” Fokazi said.

Traditional healers rely on indigenous health practices that have been passed down through the generations and thus offer an alternative to conventional healthcare methods which use scientific, evidence-based practices. But formalising traditional medicine will enable healers to collaborate with doctors and nurses at the primary care level.

Listen to the full interview on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.