Healers unite to fight poaching

THE SADC Unified Ancestors, Traditional Healers and Practitioners of South Africa organisation has called for traditional healers to stop assisting poachers with muti.

Speaking at the Kruger National Park, the organisation’s president, Dr Sylvester Hlati, said the traditional healers’ awareness campaign to fight rhino poaching had been initiated in 2012 after a number of poachers had been found with muti in their possession.

“Muti can do good things and bad things; there is muti that can make a magistrate sleep and a case can be postponed many times.

“We said: ‘Why can’t you make muti to make poachers sleep?’ ” Hlati said.

Regulation needed

“We need to regulate this so we know who’s doing what.”

Hlati said traditional healers were being murdered if the poachers who visited them were not successful.

Some took a small cloth with muti on it for the poacher to put around their waist or neck, or something to bath with or to inject in their body and an animal will think the person is also an animal.

About seven poachers had been arrested through the campaign but the lack of financial support made it difficult for them to reach more villages.

Hlati said they were relying on the private sector to assist them with travelling to more communities around Africa to educate the healers on the dangers of assisting poachers and the impact it had on the environment and the country.

“It’s unfortunate that some of our practitioners are assisting poachers; they have muti that will prevent rhinos and lions from being violent towards them.”

He said the campaign had been successful in educating the traditional healers in understanding why they should not work with poachers. – ANA