Sangomas reject minister’s ‘un-African’ prescription
TRANSPARENT: Thousands of traditional healers such as Nokulinda Mkhize, left, and Durbanite KM Zungu will be affected by proposed regulations SOCIAL sciences graduate Nokulinda Mkhize is not your typical sangoma — she does her consultations via Skype and doles out advice online.
Mkhize, who has been practising as a sangoma for five years, has a Twitter feed with more than 7 000 followers and her website features online shopping, a brief biography and copies of newspaper columns she has written.
She may not fit the old-fashioned stereotype of a barefoot, stick-waving sangoma in a dingy hut, but she is nonetheless one of thousands of sangomas who stand to be affected by the government’s plans to regulate the multibillion-rand traditional healing sector.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi wants those who receive the ancestral call to become a sangoma to apply first to a traditional healers’ council for registration and pay a fee, and then only if they are 18 or older.
The 20-member interim council is made up of provincial representatives and members of bodies such as the Health Professions Council of South Africa and the South African Pharmacy Council.
Those who heed the ancestral call will have to undergo training at an accredited institution or with a traditional tutor. Motsoaledi intends to enforce 12 months’ training for sangomas.
Practising sangomas will have to record the information shared between themselves and their patients.
But the proposed regulations have angered traditional healers, who accuse the government of using Western means to address African needs.
They have taken to the “Sesiyakhula Njalo” (“We are growing gradually”) page on Facebook to vent their anger.
On Thursday, sangomas protested against the regulations by lighting incense and ululating outside the offices of the Department of Health in Pretoria, where they handed over a memorandum and gave Motsoaledi 14 days to respond to their concerns.
Solly Nduku, the leader of the National Unitary Professional Association for African Traditional Health Practitioners of South Africa, said regulations were necessary, but there were areas that they felt reflected a lack of consultation.
“The council seems to be losing touch with the practitioners,” he said.
“We have identified serious shortfalls in terms of requirements. [The regulations] seem not to have taken into account the spiritual and cultural aspects that prevail in this profession.”
Nokubongile Kakayo, a traditional healer from Umlazi in Durban, said the regulations would kill traditional healing.
“It’s like the government is fighting with us,” she said.
John Lockley, a fully-fledged white sangoma known as Ucingolwentaba (The Messenger), said it was important to regulate the profession, but the government should also make the process more transparent.
“For instance, where do sangomas go to register? Some of the oldest and best traditional healers don’t speak English . . . I think the government should focus on education. What is a sangoma? What is an inyanga? It’s important to maintain the dignity of traditional healers and give them a voice devoid of judgment and ridicule.”
Last week, e-sangoma Mkhize tweeted: “The gap for exploitation in ubungoma [spiritual practice] is at the intersection of black socio-economic exclusion & consumerist entitlement . . . the practice is seen as a frivolous thing of superstition of the highest Woowoo order & not a disciplined practice.”