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Traditional healers back delay to ‘Eurocentric' laws

Publish date: 15 July 2019
Issue Number: 832
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Corruption

SA traditional healers face a new delay in their long-running campaign to be formally recognised as health practitioners, says a Sunday Times report. The Traditional Health Practitioners Act of 2004, which is meant to set up a statutory regulatory body for SA's 200 000-plus healers, is one of the ‘unconstitutional’ laws the Law Reform Commission wants scrapped. The commission has identified 98 health laws for repeal, amendment or consolidation, arguing they are outdated, obsolete, contrary to current policies and practices, or have been amended so many times that they are confusing. Formalisation would mean that healers would be issued with practice numbers and could claim from medical aids. But some say they would rather face a new delay than have the law imposed on them. The Traditional Healers Organisation and the National Unitary Professional Association for Traditional Health Practitioners also called for the scrapping of a subsequent 2007 law. They said ‘Eurocentric legislation’ was irrelevant to them because traditional healing dealt with cultural and spiritual ailments as well as physical problems. ‘It is a huge relief for us to hear of the potential repeal,’ said Thobeka Kentane, deputy general secretary of the unitary association. Health department spokesperson Popo Maja said work was under way on a number of draft laws, but the legislative process and timelines depended on Parliament.

Full Sunday Times report (subscription needed)

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