WITCH DOCTORS TO BE GIVEN MEDICAL LICENSES IN SOUTH AFRICA
Lawmakers in South Africa Draw Up Proposal to Legitimize
Witch Doctors
Sunday, August 9, 1998
The Associated Press
CAPE TOWN, South Africa Seeking to break the stereotyped image of witch
doctors chanting and waving wands, South African lawmakers took steps last
week to legitimize traditional healers.
A report drawn up by parliamentary committees has recommended setting
up a special council to regulate the 350,000 men and women who practice
traditional medicine in South Africa.
Proposals include giving healers medical certificates, allowing them
to claim costs from their patients' medical insurance and developing a code
of conduct.
The council would also standardize treatments and prices and promote
training, research and the creation of a traditional medicine database.
Using traditional medicine is still widespread in South Africa, especially
in rural areas. Government figures estimate that up to 80 percent of South
Africans will at some point go to a healer.
"The report attempts to redress the inappropriate government policies
of the past, which were repressive and dehumanizing," the document
said. "Traditional healers were not only dehumanized but branded as
witches."
The report recommends classifying traditional healers into four types:
herbalists, diviners, birth attendants and surgeons who primarily perform
circumcisions.
Meetings between doctors and government officials are scheduled for
later this year and early next year to discuss how to implement the report's
recommendations.
Several other countries have already put traditional medicine on the
same level as modern medicine.
In China, traditional doctors can go to special universities for training,
and hospitals are divided into sections for those who mainly use traditional
methods and those with Western-style doctors.
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