The Traditional Health Practitioners Act (THPA) should be repealed as it evolved from laws made by “colonialists…from a puritanical context” and it does not take “cognisance of the specific circumstances of the colonised”
That’s the opinion of Traditional Healers Organisation (THO) national coordinator Phephsile Maseko‚ who said he had written to Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi about his concerns over the Draft Traditional Health Practitioners Regulations 2015 being incorporated into the act.
This‚ said Maseko‚ followed extensive consultation with its “legal representatives‚…approximately 72,000 of its practitioners from across South Africa’s nine provinces and the presentation to representatives of the National Department of Health in the traditional medicine unit”.
Maseko said “there is a general lack of understanding of the industry and dynamics of the abelaphi (traditional health practitioners) in South Africa”.
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He cited “inaccurate and non-descriptive Westernised terminology” used in the act‚ and quoted the example of “iThwasa – a trainee sangoma – being referred to as a student‚ while uGobela is loosely called a tutor”.
“We understand that in the majority of African countries‚ the legislative world has evolved in most cases where the lawmakers were colonialists who made laws from a puritanical context‚” Maseko said.
“As a result‚ laws did not take cognisance of the specific circumstances of the colonised‚ who more often than not‚ were the majority.
“The law-makers had little regard for traditional healing practices and saw the practice thereof as heretical.”
Rather than incorporating the draft regulations into the act‚ Maseko urged “Motsoaledi to repeal the THPA‚ to start on a solid foundation and implement suggestions made by both the THO and other practitioner associations in facilitating transformation of the sector and putting in place building blocks for cementing a good working relationship”.
Maseko also addressed criticism that the THO “has…refused regulation”‚ but in fact “publicly called for greater regulation in the face of excesses reportedly being carried out by bogus traditional healers”.
