Eastern Cape Health MEC, Nomakhosazana Meth, says the provincial government has taken huge strides towards recognition of traditional health practitioners and African traditional medicine in the health industry.
Meth was speaking during the African Traditional Medicine Day commemoration event in Ntabankulu, on September 16.
The event was attended by traditional health practitioners from across the Eastern Cape, traditional leaders and government officials.
“We have a good working relationship with traditional health practitioners in the province; hence we have trained some of them in the treatment of some of the diseases and referral of their patients to our health facilities.
“We are also working with tertiary institutions to develop our traditional health practitioners so that they don’t just sell their raw products but are developed in terms of research so they can come up with medicines that can be the answer to some of the diseases,” Meth said.
Eastern Cape Traditional Health Practitioners Council chairperson, Nomasundu Galloway, said the commemorative event was evidence that government was making progress towards putting traditional medicines on a par with the Western medicines.
“For a long time, our African traditional medicines were stigmatised and shunned but today we are able, as traditional health practitioners, to share ideas with doctors who studied Western medicine on best health practices,” Galloway said.
The commemorative event was part of the provincial Department of Health’s effort to strengthen partnership and recognising the role played by traditional health practitioners in providing healthcare services to the people of the province.
The World Health Organisation recommends that traditional medicine be integrated into the health system as over 80% of people from the African region depend on traditional medicine.
“This is a good initiative by government as traditional health practitioners have always been in existence and healing our people long before the Western medicine phenomenon came into existence,” concluded Eastern Cape House of Traditional and Khoisan Leaders chairperson, Chief Mpumalanga Gwadiso.
