Traditional healers in the Eastern Cape say the proposed health regulations for members registered with the Traditional Health Practitioners Counc il are an attack on African spirituality.
Draft regulations were published in June 2024 outlining the processes which traditional health practitioners should follow in registering with the Council.
But traditional healers say the westernised requirements in the impending regulations go against the ancient spiritual communication with ancestors involved in the practice.
Traditionalist Phuthumile Fuyani says Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and the Traditional Health Practitioners Council failed to consult them regarding the regulations.
The refusal of the ITP Council and the Department of Health DOH to engage with Traditional Health Practitioners indeed raises a lot of red flags about the potential for exploitation and suppression of Indigenous knowledge and practice. What the department wants is to regulate traditional medicine, but they are not able to do it without capturing the knowledge holders, which are traditional healers, says Fuyani.
