Traditional healers resist Govt regulation

THE traditional Medical Practitioners Council is facing resistance in its registration drive with only 31 practitioners having registered in 2018 compared to 448 in the same period last year.

Parts of the Traditional Medical Practitioners’ Act state that the “practice of traditional medical practitioners means every act, the object of which is to treat identify, analyse, or diagnose without the application of operative surgery any illness of body or mind by traditional methods”.

At a registration outreach in Harare last week, TMPC chairperson Sekuru Friday Chisanyu said all unlicensed practitioners would be barred from operating come March 1, 2018.

“This year there is general resistance, which is mostly coming from the apostolic sects, as compared to last year when nearly 300 of those that had registered by this time of the year where apostolic practitioners,” he said.

“It is the Government’s priority to have all practitioners licensed, registered under associations and operating openly so as to uphold transparency at all costs.”

Annually new members pay a fee of US$25 to register under the TMPC, while affiliate associations charge their own fees, which can be up to US$60.

Sekuru Chisanyu said registration allowed the State to weed out bogus practitioners.

“We are saying all those who are not medical practitioners, those who do not use surgical apparatus should register as practitioners under our associations, whether one uses ‘mweya’, or ‘matombo’ or traditional medicine.

“Our country upholds the freedom of worship. Since you practice wherever you want, you then need to be registered so that we know who to identify you with, especially in the event someone is caught on the wrong side of the law. It is the association lawyers that will represent the practitioners,” he said.

Some apostolic sects said the registration costs were too high.

“We operate free of charge and so even if we are willing to acquire licenses and register, we cannot afford. We used to charge people whenever we rendered such services as destroying goblins. But now we can’t because we now know that one can be jailed for that and charged with fraud,” Madzibaba Steven Takavarasha said.

Practitioners who charge a fee for their services rendered can be arrested under Section 170 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.

Madzibaba Persuage Muradzi said the licensing and registration costs were beyond their reach.

“These fees are too high especially for us since we operate for free. So we are asking these authorities to kindly reconsider these charges and reduce to accommodate us.

“We are not saying they should waive it totally but at least reduce for us to afford because we understand that licensing upholds transparency and eliminates crime,” he said.